Dark Souls is no stranger to horror. Whether it's the horror of NPCs whose motivations are so alien to us, the horror of enemies who love nothing more than to ambush you around every corner, or the horror of realising the controller you've just bashed against the table in frustration doesn't work properly anymore.
The bosses, though, they hold the real horror. Dark Souls is known for its boss fights and they feature some of the grisliest, ugliest, most evil-aura-having entities known to imagination. I don't think you'd want to meet any Dark Souls boss late at night, but some are more threatening than others.
8 Gravelord Nito
Do you like skeletons? Do you like skeletons in your skeletons? Gravelord Nito might be the man for you, but I'm guessing not really. He's nicknamed The Great Dead One for a reason - his power over life and, mostly, undeath is legendary.
Unless you want to be turned into an animated, clattering collection of calcium, you'll want to avoid bumping into this terror. However, if you do want, be our guest. Rather you than us.
7 Deacons Of The Deep
"Hello, do you have time to hear the good word of our lord Aldrich? We swear he won't just eat you the moment you meet him, he's a kind and benevolent lor- hey, stop running. Why won't you listen to our gospel?"
Yeah, no. It's probably not a good idea to pay attention to the Deacons of the Deep. Running into a bunch of shambling, pyromancy-wielding religious types isn't the ideal encounter to have when you're walking home late at night. Doubly so if they start trying to whack you over the head with their magic candlesticks.
6 Ceaseless Discharge
While his name sounds more like a symptom than a title, Ceaseless Discharge is no-less imposing. He's a gigantic being either made out of or coated in molten lava and he doesn't have a head. Instead, a writhing mass of tentacles seems to have sprouted out of his chest.
That's just going to be hard to explain. That is if Ceaseless Giant doesn't simply smash you into the ground as soon as he notices you. Not a friendly one, that giant.
5 Aldrich, Devourer Of Gods
Let's imagine that you did run into the Deacons of the Deep one night, and you were just too polite/scared to walk away from their proselytizing. You might end up meeting Aldrich, Devourer of Gods.
You breathe a sigh of relief. "I'm not a God, he won't devour me," you think. Nope. Aldrich devours everyone he wants, that just happens to include gods. Spending your last night in the belly of some grotesque slug with a corpse poking out of it doesn't sound like a fun way to go.
4 Royal Rat Vanguard
Sometimes, Dark Souls proffers horrors beyond one's understanding. They elicit ancestral fears and an icky feeling that goes beyond disgust and fear. FromSoft knows well how to conjure nightmares previously thought unimaginable.
Sometimes, though, a rat is just a rat. And rats are really gross, especially at night when they skitter over your feet when you just need to take the bins out.
3 Pinwheel
Pinwheel's face looks like a jumpscare jpeg given life crossed with the "return the slab" guy from Courage the Cowardly Dog. In that way, he's equal parts scary and funny. It's when you realize that he's probably three different bodies stitched together with their arms splayed wildly that the horror outweighs the humor.
Yes, he's not the strongest Dark Souls boss in the game, but if you were to encounter him whilst on a midnight hike, you're hardly likely to think twice about running away as fast as you can. Even the lure of one of his neat masks won't keep your feet planted on the ground.
2 The Last Giant
Speaking of masks, it would be so nice if this dude would wear one. A large part of the Last Giant's horror comes from his face, or rather, his lack of a face. The gaping hole where his features should turns a pretty mundane giant into a staring match that you'll never be able to win.
And that's before factoring in the fact that the Last Giant holds no qualms about dismembering himself to make himself more useful in a fight! Never mind cutting off your nose to spite your face, more like cutting off your own arm to bash your enemy's head in.
1 Covetous Demon
Talk about a face only a mother could love. This slug-like abomination is renowned as one of Soulsborne's easiest bosses, but that doesn't stop it from being something you absolutely don't want to meet face to malformed face.
Just look at all those teeth! This thing's dental bills must be sky-high - and imagine the breath. You can just imagine how putrid it would smell just being near this thing.