Is there a name for the dark-fantasy/pirate genre?

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I couldn't decide if I should post this to the gaming community or movies community so I decided to split the difference and just post it here since I'm open to games, movies, or book suggestions.

I have an itch I seem to have trouble scratching. I want more pirate stories that involve dark fantasy elements (skeletons, krakens, ghosts, voodoo, etc.) yet there seem to be very few of these. The best example of what I'm looking for is of course the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but those have diminishing returns. Even though it's exactly what I want, each movie is worse than the last.

I just finished playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and that was also exactly what I wanted. And I'm unreasonably excited for DAVY x JONES to come out. And yet... that's all I can find. Those are the only properties I know of that actually scratch my itch. And I'm shocked at how few entries there are in this genre.

I don't want a straight-forward pirate adventure like Cutthroat Island or Black Sails, or... I don't know, Muppet Treasure Island; I want something with dark fantasy elements in it. I recently watched a Korean movie on Netflix called The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure and while it had the adventure/comedy feel of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, there were no fantasy elements in it at all.

Is there a name for this sub-genre that I just haven't stumbled across? Are there really so few entries in this sub-genre? I created a [email protected] community awhile back, and I guess I'm really just looking for the pirate equivalent of the Weird West genre. I guess the Vampirates book series meets my criteria, but it's at a middle school reading level and that just isn't for me. Maybe I should just re-watch Pirates of Dark Water...

So can anyone here help me out? Is there a better term to search for than just 'pirate fantasy'? Are there any other movies, books, or games you know of that might scratch my itch?

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The Total War: Warhammer games (the second game in the trilogy specifically) have an undead pirate faction that could scratch that itch.

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You kinda made me wonder how the "undead pirate" theme developed. Sounds like it might have been at least in part around The Flying Dutchman, though that's not the only "supernatural maritime" folklore, and that specific story wasn't originally about pirates.

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), a friend of John Leyden's, was the first to refer to the vessel as a pirate ship, writing in the notes to Rokeby (first published December 1812) that the ship was "originally a vessel loaded with great wealth, on board of which some horrid act of murder and piracy had been committed" and that the apparition of the ship "is considered by the mariners as the worst of all possible omens".

https://fathomsdeepbeyond.substack.com/p/the-flying-dutchman

As to games, have you played the classic Monkey Island series? It's not all that dark, but it is pirates and ghosts.

If you play the Total War: Warhammer games, there are undead pirate factions in the second game's Curse of the Vampire Coast DLC. You can buy multiple games and use the factions from different titles in later games. I don't know if that has enough story for you.

EDIT: TV Tropes calls it the "Ghost Pirate":

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GhostPirate

Despite the name, the Ghost Pirate trope includes all forms of undead pirates, including zombie or skeletal variants (literal skeleton crews).

EDIT2: I thought that the Flying Dutchman didn't involve pirates at all, but WP says that it did become associated with pirates at some point; added reference above.

EDIT3: Going a bit out of genre, there's Sunless Sea. That's Lovecraftian and Victorian British naval stuff, but not really specifically undead and the player's ship isn't a pirate ship. Might be close enough in feel to make you happy, though. I'm not really a huge fan of the game, as I don't like the gameplay much. It's really about the ambience and feel, but it might be right up your alley.

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You might enjoy the Monkey Island games if you like point-and-click adventures.

1, 2, and Return are the best ones.

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In TTRPGs: Look for 7th Sea, it's exactly what you want. They also have a boardgame

In Video games, The Monkey Island series is a classic, but it's a comedy. There's also Rogue Waters and Red Rogue Sea, which are recently released turn based strategy games with roguelite elements.

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I recommend the book On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. Sounds like it’s exactly what you’re looking for.

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Perfect, thank you! You're right, "undead pirate" or "ghost pirate" is exactly the type of thing I'm looking for.

I've been aware of the Monkey Island games for awhile but I guess I never knew there were supernatural elements to it. And I've never played any of the Total War games so I guess I need to look into those too!

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Awesome, thank you! You're right, that description sounds perfect!

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I guess I really missed out on the Monkey Island games, they seem to be getting mentioned here a lot.

Is it OK to start with Return or do I need to play the older games first?

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And I’ve never played any of the Total War games so I guess I need to look into those too!

Just to be clear, the Total War games make up a large collection that span many settings and themes (e.g. ancient Japan or Rome). It's the Warhammer line of games within that collection that is specifically fantasy, and inside that, it's specifically the Curse of the Vampire Coast stuff that has the undead pirates.

That's not to say that the series is bad --- it's been a prominent strategy game series for a long time --- but if what you're looking for is specifically undead pirate stuff, only a small portion of that collection is relevant.

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I'd recommend the older ones first.
Personally I found them better - and more in line with what you're looking for than the later ones.

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1 and 2 both have remasters! Really one of my favorite franchises. You can have the rubber chicken with the pulley in the middle, the pulley squeaks.

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You'd get more out of Return if you start with 1 and 2.

My kids didn't play the first two, and they loved Return. On the other hand, I introduced a friend to 1 and she'd never played a P&C adventure before but she adored it.

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Hmm. I get why you're saying dark fantasy, but I'm having trouble picturing non-dark fantasy pirates. Give narwhals magical unicorn powers, I guess?

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The first two parts work pretty well on mobile when you use SCUMM VM

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For example, there's a book series called Liveship Traders which I guess has pirates and magical living ships but it's all "high fantasy". At least, that's my understanding (I haven't read them). I'm also not looking for steampunk/airship pirates, which you could consider fantasy.

I guess I'm broadly looking for more "horror themed" fantasy elements, if that makes sense. I agree that most pirate settings would lean more towards horror elements, but it isn't a guarantee. I mean, there's a Tinkerbell movie called The Pirate Fairy. Not interested.

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Well now that's interesting... I never really considered how well point & click adventure games would work on mobile devices. That's a good idea.

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Interesting! Living ships would do it. And come to think of it, One Piece might also qualify.

The Peter Pan franchise is a bit of a weird case, because the pirates are the bad guys, and exist in opposition to the surrounding fantasy world with IIRC few magical aspects of their own.

For whatever reason, I think lawlessness just does lend itself more to the dark kind of fantasy, which is shared in common with the western example you gave. And at the other end, light fantasy is full of autocratic feudal nightmares painted as cool and just. It might be a hangover from the values of the original myth-makers.

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Exactly, One Piece and Peter Pan are perfect examples of "pirate fantasy" but are missing that lawless aspect which (in my opinion) drives the romantic view of pirates (and the Wild West). Or maybe not "lawlessness" but the "living by their own code" aspect of it.

It's strange how dark/light fantasy shouldn't have any impact on whether the lawlessness of pirates is glorified, yet it seems to work out that way.

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Treasure planet?

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Is there a name for the dark-fantasy/pirate genre?