Dennis Duran

Grimstone is an attempt to tame the western genre using fantasy, without breaking from the classical aesthetic. “Fantasy” may evoke images of a vaguely recognizable European age, with the same elves, goblins, and dragons no matter which way you slice it. In the case of Grimstone, “fantasy" simply describes an altered reality which still reflects our own. Instead of a medieval fiefdom, it is a world on the brink of industrialisation, trying its hardest to civilize the farthest reaches of society. Its monsters are an affront not to pagan gods, but more of the brooding Abrahamic type. It takes place in a fantasy equivalent of 1800’s North America, which certainly offers more than enough to chew on: manifest destiny, religious fervor, revolutionary wars, and frontier justice to name a few. This bizarre take on 19th century America is a deceptively versatile setting. Take an alternate-history version of the New World, throw some rugged cowboys in, and add a gothic-horror twist just for the hell of it. What you get is a perfect blend of aesthetics which have seldom been combined before, in Grimstone. Despite desert town shootouts and the occasional damsel tied to train tracks, internal struggle is often what defines a western protagonist. As such, Grimstone is founded, above all, on its characters. A man of the cloth goes door to door, not for prayer, but to save the innocent from biblically abhorrent creatures. The madame of a brothel controls a town with an iron fist, by leading a militia of armed working-girls. A mysterious masked man travels through impenetrable lands to seek some personal vendetta against our hero. These archetypes are by no means entirely unfamiliar, but like everything in Grimstone, they are exaggerated for the sake of fun, and loyalty to the western genre. Grimstone works because it’s not simply a ‘cowboys versus werewolves’ premise. It’s a world which explores the dark and intriguing parts of a genre, and the realities behind them. It delves into the intense themes of religion, power dynamics, and hopelessness in a dangerous environment which many real westerns have been hesitant to touch upon.