This Masterclass in Western Movies Is Set to Become a Cult Classic on Streaming

4 days ago 10

Published Jul 2, 2026, 7:56 AM EDT

Charlie Ridgely is a writer from Maryland, currently residing in Nashville, Tennessee. He may be new to Collider, but he's been writing, editing, conducting interviews, and podcasting around the industry for 10 years. From 2016 to the start of 2026, Charlie was a full time writer and critic at ComicBook.com. A lifelong movie fan, avid reader, and renowned (fictional) dungeon explorer/dragonslayer, Charlie is a jack-of-all-trades throughout the fandom multiverse and has covered everything under the sun.

The day of the video rental store may be over, but word of mouth is very much still alive, and some great movies are going to find a way to be seen by bigger audiences. The concept of the "cult classic" is an eternal one. There are several modern films that were overlooked or underappreciated upon their initial theatrical release, but feel destined to be favorites for many movie buffs for years to come. One such movie, a Western from just a couple of years ago, has already proven its popularity on multiple different streaming services, despite a box office showing so poor that it legitimately killed what was supposed to be an entire film series.

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 was supposed to be the first of four movies in a Western epic from legendary actor and genre director Kevin Costner. The first Horizon movie was released in June of 2024, with Chapter 2 originally set to hit theaters just two months later. But the three-hour epic earned just $34 million at the box office (against a $50 million budget) and the sequel was pulled from the release calendar. Costner was filming the third chapter of the film at one point, but questions now remain as to whether Warner Bros. will even release the second installment.

It's a shame that Horizon didn't get a chance to find its footing with audiences, because Costner was really onto something with his sprawling tale of American West. It's a massive adventure that feels like the Western hits of the 1990s, and fans who have found it on the likes of HBO Max, Netflix, or Prime Video are finding themselves clammoring for the next chapter.

'Horizon' Is a Modern Western Classic

The Western genre isn't explored nearly as heavily as it was in decades past, with very few films in the last 25 years really earning their place in the genre's pantheon. The Coen Brothers' True Grit is arguably the best of this quarter-century of Western movies, and one of the only entries that doesn't bend the genre a whole lot. Films like Django Unchained or No Country For Old Men stretch the Western in a few different directions.

The first chapter of Costner's Horizon saga isn't quite as good as True Grit, but it deserves to be part of the conversation when it comes to fantastic modern Westerns. The film captures the old west in a way we don't see often anymore, the danger and melodrama set against a gorgeous backdrop of mountains and empty deserts. Nearly every minute of Horizon is a sight to behold, very clearly influenced by the iconic films of John Ford.

Horizon also digs deeper into some of the elements of Westerns that haven't aged well, keeping true to the genre while still offering up a new approach to certain dynamics. Costner was setting up an enormously intriguing storyline about how violence affected both the settlers and the Native American tribes who were already settled on the land out west. The Native people, especially the Comanche, have long been villainized by Western films, portrayed as little more than killers and savages in countless movies. Even though the cowboys and settlers in the real American West were the ones encroaching on their land, the Native people were almost always depicted as the villains.

Costner bucked this trend a bit in Dances With Wolves, though that classic came with its fair share of tropes and a very shallow exploration of its native characters. With Horizon, he took everything much deeper and added layers to make the characters seem both more nuanced and more authentic. One of the film's early scenes features a young Native warrior killing settlers, seemingly settling into the Western tropes of old. But when he returns to his tribe, we get to see how much trouble his actions cause at home, putting him at odds with his leaders. And we get the chance to explore how he justifies his rage and violence. On the other side of the coin, there are several awful people amongst the soldiers, settlers, and cowboys that are making their way across the country. Costner was building a world here that examined how no one person can be put into a box, and that good or evil can exist in any of us no matter where we come from.

More 'Horizon' to Come?

The first chapter of Horizon spends three hours laying the bricks for the foundation of the series, and putting all the major players into place so that the sequel can hit the ground running. The film even concludes with multiple minutes of footage from that sequel, which audiences outside the Venice or Santa Barbara film festivals still haven't seen.

There has been no word from Costner or Warner Bros. about the future of the Horizon saga, which makes it feel all the more grim. There is a fully completed second chapter sitting on a shelf somehwere, and plenty of footage already in the can for Chapter 3. Hopefully we'll get to see it at some point. Until then, we'll have to make do with the excellent Horizon film we already have. If we keep watching and talking about it, the chances of ever seeing Chapter 2 can only get better.