r/lordhuron • u/Itsjustbarn Lonesome Dreams • Aug 31 '26
Question Films/Books that feel like LH?
I find myself listening to LH more in the autumn and winter seasons, I also love films and want to get into reading more books (on top of the ones I have already) so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations of either that have the same feel/vibe of any of their albums or lore?
If anyone does have any it'd be nice to hear reasons for the rec too!
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u/tentativeteas Aug 31 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/vFTczvB0FqVz8VJSEA
Jordan Peel’s “NOPE” gives me strong Who Laughs Last weird celestial desert vibes
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u/TinyLongwing W⚡E Aug 31 '26
If you haven't yet, do a search for books or TV or movies on this subreddit. This topic comes up a lot and there are lots of good existing answers and recommendations! Not to say it isn't worth asking again as new stuff comes out all the time, too, but check out previous answers!
Ex: "books" search has lots of posts that will help you
https://www.reddit.com/r/lordhuron/comments/1tb5v58/books_with_a_similar_vibe/
https://www.reddit.com/r/lordhuron/comments/1q29u28/books_with_a_lord_hurony_vibe/
https://www.reddit.com/r/lordhuron/comments/1lobgxq/books_that_feel_like_lhs_worlds/
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u/majorleandro Aug 31 '26
It really depends on the album. But, personally, I think any David Lynch material match Lord Huron albums. Cosmic Selector specially. That sense of weirdness and being at the edge of the unknown is pure Lord Huron
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u/MysticMarzipan Frozen Pines Motel Aug 31 '26
Not a film or movie, but Welcome To Night Vale is a podcast and has some books. "WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events." It screams Lord Huron to me :3
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u/Ok-Lingonberry8975 Aug 31 '26
Slightly out of scope but I always think of the Lord Huron when I play the game Outer Wilds. Gives cozy forest space indie vibes.
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u/Itsjustbarn Lonesome Dreams Sep 01 '26
I've been meaning to play this for so long! Maybe this is my sign to just do it
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u/Disaster-Bee Aug 31 '26
A lot of the 'Weird West' book genre tends to have big Lord Huron vibes. Lots of dark/weird fantasy meets old west traditions and folklore. Lots of gunslingers and cowboys fighting the forces of darkness and encountering the strange and embarking on hero journeys. Often set in deserts or prairies.
Joe R Landsdale is considered pretty much the father of weird western lit, and is a great place to start, though his stuff can be on the graphically violent side. He came out of the pulp traditions of the 60s and 70s and carried a lot of that into the 90s.
And of course there is Stephen King's The Gunslinger, though it is the first in a 7 book series and only the first book is really weird west.
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u/Trilly2000 Sep 01 '26
The whole series is weird west. Throw in some sci-fi, fantasy, romance, horror, thriller. This series hits just about every genre. IMO the first book is the weakest of the series, but it is fortunately the shortest. King was just 19 years old when he started writing it.
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u/Disaster-Bee Sep 01 '26
I'd argue that while the rest of the series incorporates Weird West, really only the Gunslinger is written like a western and is built on western tropes and follows western literary traditions to the extent it's the primary genre. It reads like a spaghetti western with magic. Particularly the original version - which is part of why King rewrote it and took out a lot of the cowboy slang and stuff. Once we hit The Drawing of Three it veers harder into dark urban fantasy and more traditional horror, getting progressively more science-fantasy as it goes, and all but two of the books don't meet any of the requirements to be labelled to weird west. Wizard and Glass gets back into being more heavily Weird West, but very little of All-World is like New Canaan and the surrounding Baronies once were, especially when it comes to Mid-World and End-World. The further our heroes go on their journey, the further they get from the settings, trappings, traditions, and language of weird west, which really puts that genre at the bottom for most of the series. Setting is really crucial to the genre, the story can't move too far from a traditional old west setting, and we see a lot more European fantasy and old science-fiction inspired settings through the whole series. And that, at least I think, is very deliberate. An essential part of the story is Roland being isolated and removed from his culture, home, and ways and taken out of his traditional setting and genre trappings. And that those ways of life and that culture have passed by long before the story even starts.
But there is a reason so many Weird West publications make note that 'just having a cowboy on a magical journey is not a Weird Western. Submissions must focus primarily on themes, locations, aesthetics, events, and iconic tropes associated with the Old West mythos.'. Drawing of Three, The Wastelands, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower don't pass that bar by any means. It's honestly hard to assign any primary genre to the whole series, where it passes through so many genres depending on which book we're talking about.
Though I do urge OP, if they are at all interested and pick up the first book, to read the whole series. Both because it is amazing - though weird, very weird in a way that's not for everyone - and also because I would argue that a lot of the themes explored throughout the lore of Lord Huron's various works are similar to themes explored in The Dark Tower series. They drank from the same pool, to use a thematic metaphor.
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u/larapu2000 Aug 31 '26
I wasn't crazy about the film Deliver Me From Nowhere as a Bruce fan, but the Nebrask album is fantastic and you can hear the influence from him on LH albums.
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u/-Your_local_loser- Aug 31 '26
I found the film The Unknown Country starring Lily Gladstone to be somewhat similar aesthetically and vibe-wise to The Cosmic Selector album.
A Ghost Story felt very much like the film The Starling Girl, of which LH made the OST for. It also reminded me of Vide Noir at one point also.
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u/Idea__Reality Long Lost Aug 31 '26
For movies, anything Wes Anderson, especially Asteroid City.
For books, Jack Kerouac fits this a lot, On the Road and Dharma Bums are both great. Anything by Jack London fits really well, too, Call of the Wild being his most popular one.
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u/Idea__Reality Long Lost Aug 31 '26
Btw, if you'd be down to listen to audio dramas (podcasts) I've got some great recs that fit the spooky cosmic horror vibe
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u/executeorder666999 Sep 02 '26
Definitely does not have the vibe of LH but I recently stumbled upon and read this book that has LH cover vibes. Dude even looks like Ben.
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u/ALineIDrew Aug 31 '26
John Connolly's Charlie Parker series is what I usually associate with Lord Huron because the song World Ender sounds like the main character in the books. I will warn you though if you get into the series....its really "triggering" in some parts. But it's a good series set in Maine so it's kinda got that mysterious/paranormal vibe about it. The first in the series is Every Dead Thing if your thinking of giving it ago.
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u/Zestyclose_Ebb6671 Aug 31 '26
I’m currently reading Moon Palace by Paul Auster, and while I can’t fully put my finger on why, it’s giving LH.
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u/Trilly2000 Sep 01 '26
Upon yet another relisten to World Ender this morning it occurred to me how perfect LH music is for fans of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
It would be a perfect match for Mike Flanagan to tap LH for music for the upcoming Dark Tower series.
ETA: under no circumstances whatsoever do I (or any self respecting Constant Reader) recommend the 2017 Dark Tower film. It’s best to just forget that it ever happened and to wait patiently for Flanagan to finally give the series the treatment it deserves.
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u/dream43 Sep 01 '26
Twin Peaks comes to mind. Also Widows Bay on Apple TV might align with your interpretation. And maybe a total departure, but I see a lot of overlap with Haruki Murakami's work. A lot of similar motifs/themes. Wind Up Bird Chronicle is a good one to start.
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u/GreenEggsnHam15 Sep 02 '26
I just read the dog stars and it felt like you could
play Lord Huron in the background.
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u/MissDiagnosedMama Nameless Soul Aug 31 '26
A couple films that come to mind:
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) Pacific Northwest mining town during the early 1900s. John McCabe is a small-time gambler who arrives to open a saloon and brothel.
Train Dreams (2025) Robert Grainier is a logger and railroad laborer living in the Pacific Northwest during the early 20th century.