Ambrose Bierce in popular culture

Ambrose Bierce was a 19th century writer who lives on through continued appearances in today's culture.

Robert W. Chambers borrowed several terms and fictional locations (including, for instance, Carcosa and Hastur) from Bierce, for use in his book of horror short stories, The King in Yellow. The horror writer H.P. Lovecraft later incorporated these into his own work, as did other authors who later extended Lovecraft's characters and themes, collectively creating the Cthulhu Mythos.

Robert Bloch's short story "I Like Blondes" (published in Playboy, 1956) is constructed around a group of alien bodysnatchers frequenting Earth. The narrator's host body's "name was Beers...Ambrose Beers, I believe. He picked it up in Mexico a long time ago."

At least three films have been made of Bierce's story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". A silent film version was made in the 1920s. A French version called La Rivière du Hibou, directed by Robert Enrico, was released in 1962. This is a black and white film, faithfully recounting the original narrative using voice-over. Another version, directed by Brian James Egan, was released in 2005. The 1962 film was also used for an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". The presentation was rare for commercial television in that it was offered without commercial interruption. A copy of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" appeared in the ABC television series Lost ("The Long Con", airdate February 8, 2006). Previous to The Twilight Zone, the story had been adapted as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes wrote Gringo Viejo (The Old Gringo), a fictionalized account of Bierce's disappearance. Fuentes' keenly observed novel was later adapted as a film, Old Gringo, with Gregory Peck in the title role.

Bierce appears as a character in the 2000 film "From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter" (set in 1913, a prequel to the original From Dusk Till Dawn). While traveling to join up with Pancho Villa, Bierce is first attacked by bandits, and then trapped in a bar filled with vampires bent on killing all the humans inside. This clearly fictional adventure also portrayed Bierce, played by Michael Parks, as an alcoholic.
Bierce appears as a character in Robert A. Heinlein's novella Lost Legacy (published in the short story collection Assignment in Eternity). In the story, Bierce is part of a league of humans who have learned to use the unused portions of their brains and have advanced mental powers.

Bierce appears as the main character and narrator in the story "The Oxoxoco Bottle" by Gerald Kersh. The bulk of the story purports to be a manuscript written by Bierce on his last journey in Mexico, and relates a very strange adventure. The manner of his death, however, remains a mystery at the end.

Bierce is referenced in the song "The Fall of Ambrose Bierce" by 'The Stiletto Formal'.

Bierce is depicted as a detective in series of mystery novels by Oakley Hall, including Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades and Ambrose Bierce and the Death of Kings.

In DC Comics's miniseries Stanley and His Monster, Bierce (or at least a character claiming to be Bierce) appears as a sardonic trenchcoat-clad adventurer into the supernatural, very similar to John Constantine; although Bierce derides Constantine as a clown, he admits that he and Constantine are but two of several trenchcoated occult adventurers at large in the world, perhaps an implication by the writer that the archetype of the sarcastic commentator on the occult, exemplified by Constantine, can be traced back to Bierce as narrator of his own horror stories. When the comic book Bierce learns that the boy Stanley's friend, the nameless Monster, is a demon, he considers vanquishing him, but soon realizes that the Monster is a benevolent demon and instead helps Stanley and his friend against other demons.

Bierce is a major character in Allen Appel's "In Time of War" (2003) this novel is part of Appel's Alex Balfour "Pastmaster" Series and takes place during the American Civil War.

In the second season of Masters of Horror, Tobe Hooper directed a one-hour rendition of "The Damned Thing".