When I was thinking about starting this Lemmy community, I tried writing down every single Weird West work I'd seen, read, or played. In that list, I added Wild Wild West. But now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I'd call it a Weird Western.
Most Weird West works involve some sort of supernatural or fantasy element added to a Wild West setting. But does steampunk count as supernatural or fantasy? I mean, technically there weren't any giant steam-powered spiders in the Wild West but is that "weird" enough to qualify? The fact that it was steam-powered makes it harder for me to call it sci-fi. Besides, if I call Wild Wild West a Weird Western, does that mean Back to the Future Part 3 is a Weird Western too? I'm at the point where I'm questioning the definition of the genre to determine whether or not to post something.
Here's a trailer, and I'm sorry if watching it gets that theme song stuck in your head. The movie isn't streaming anywhere though.
Wait, you wouldn't call a giant robotic spider Sci-fi just because it's powered by steam? What about the concealed, man-sized robotic spider legs? Or the semi-sentient flying death saws? Or all the myriad old-timey James Bond-esque gadgets?
I haven't looked in detail at all the other movies you've included, but WWW is definitely a western and definitely weird AF. It's also possibly my (quite inexplicably and unironically) favourite movie.
I know, this really gets to be splitting hairs about genre definitions. I don't mind calling Cowboys & Aliens a Weird West movie because it takes place in the Wild West and then goes full-blown scifi. Something about upending a normal Western setting with scifi seems to work for me.
Yet creating James Bond-esque gadgets using technology that technically existed in the era (steam-power, magnets) doesn't feel as scifi to me because while the devices are new to the residents, this isn't "sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from magic". Besides, if we consider James Bond-esque gadgets to be scifi, does that mean the James Bond series itself is scifi? I would've said no, but I can see your argument for it.
In the end, it doesn't really matter. I just thought it'd be fun to discuss where we define the boundaries of this genre.
The scene with the head & projector alone makes it qualify in my mind!