Set to release in February of 2022, Dark Souls, the Japanese studio's unique collection of dark fantasy adventures has captivated hardcore enthusiasts and casual players alike, thanks to their near-unreplicable identity.
While the lore of these games is often too vague to adequately translate to film, several silver-screen features, both modern and retro, have brought a similar brand of bleak gothic atmosphere and tense adventure to life.
The Green Knight (2021)
An adaptation of Arthurian legend, The Green Knight follows Gawain on a quest to, once again, face the titular creature after beheading him on Christmas day a year prior.
Set in a grim yet fantastical world, The Green Knight makes impressive use of color, with the film's striking greens and powerful yellows used equally well in Elden Ring's pre-release trailers. Additionally, an ill-fated quest in an ill-fated world, The Green Knight reflects the dire circumstances refrained in nearly every Soulsborne title.
The Black Cauldron (1985)
In the The Black Cauldron, an oppressive offering which, though critically lauded, bombed at the box office.
Years later, however, it has been revived as something of a cult classic. An epic tale that sees a small boy journey to save his land and become a hero, it borrows quite a bit from Tolkeinian storytelling, and, in the modern era, its eerie atmosphere and fiendish villains may remind some of both Dark Souls and Elden Ring.
The Witch (2016)
A folktale adapted for the silver screen, Rober Egger's The Witch—stylized as The VVitch—was a disturbing epic that paired period-accurate dialogue and settings with subtle elements of witchcraft and satanism. Though it's much smaller in scope than Elden Ring, elements of a more traditional medieval world thrust into realms of unexplainable horror are prevalent in both works.
Elden Ring may focus far more heavily on magical duels and horseback combat, but, much like A24's now-iconic horror movie, The Witch, it seems to primarily be about intrepid presents fighting against powerful occult forces they can't totally understand.
Army Of Darkness (1992)
While the first two installments in Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead trilogy are staple horror-comedy films, bearing absolutely no resemblance to FromSoftware's fantasy epics, Army of Darkness, the third entry in the series, transports badass protagonist Ash Williams to the Dark Ages, where he must, again, pursue the Necronomicon.
Easily the strangest of the already-strange series, Army of Darkness is more of a comedy film than anything else. Still, the medieval elements mixed with outlandish fantasy bring to mind aspects of Elden Ring, even if the two seem to be totally tonally different.
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Perhaps horror auteur Guillermo del Toro's most recognized work, 2006's Pan's Labyrinth is a bizarre blend of wartime drama and high fantasy. Following a small girl who escapes into a weird realm of illusion as the horrors of the Spanish Civil War play out around her, Pan's Labyrinth asks viewers to question both what they are seeing and what they wanted to see before walking into the theater.
While correlations between the fantasy worlds of Pan's Labyrinth and Elden Ring are obvious, they're likely to share similar narrative elements. FromSoftware's works often present complicated, intricate plots that players are asked to either ignore outright or parse for themselves, and this is a tactic used—to some extent—in Pan's Labyrinth, as well.
The Head Hunter (2018)
Set in the Dark Ages, The Head Hunter sees a lone warrior make a living by killing vile creatures and claiming their bounties. He is grievously wounded almost every time, but he heals himself with a miraculous elixir he concocts from monster viscera.
Bearing a striking resemblance to the new God of War installment, The Head Hunter could also be compared to both Dark Souls and Elden Ring. With a major emphasis on melee combat, flasks filled with a healing agent, and horrendous monsters, the movie certainly seems to take a page from Hidetaka Miyazaki's work.
Snow White And The Huntsman (2012)
A 2012 adaptation of the classic folktale, Snow White and the Huntsman is a dark take on the traditionally child-friendly lore surrounding the titular character. Featuring twisted villains, Dark Age aesthetics, and plenty of fantasy elements, it feels as if the Snow White story had been combined with something like Game of Thrones.
From set designs reminiscent of Demon's Souls' Boletaria to a villainess with similarities to Dark Souls 3's Aldrich, connections between the film and FromSoftware's games aren't hard to make. Of course, the film's fantastical world could easily be compared to Elden Ring, as well.
Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001 - 2003)
A seminal adaptation of Tolkein's high fantasy anthology, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies are heralded as some of the best page-to-film translations of all time. Featuring an epic journey that spans multiple imaginative territories and deals with all sorts of staple fantasy creatures, every fantastical tale of sword and sorcery owes something to these stories.
A collaboration with A Song of Ice and Fire series author, George R. R. Martin, Elden Ring will doubtlessly borrow many tropes established in Tolkien's work, and its massive open world will likely be compared to the grand, sweeping landscapes seen in the Lord of the Rings films.
Berserk - The Golden Age Arc Series (2012 - 2013)
Telling the tale of a rogue warrior embarking on a grand quest, the Berserk manga series and its 1997 anime adaptation were hugely influential to FromSoftware during the development of the Dark Souls games. Many narrative elements, character designs, and gameplay mechanics were derived from events depicted in the manga, and the Dark Souls games could loosely be construed as spiritual adaptations of the Berserk story.
Elden Ring may not borrow as blatantly from Berserk, but the manga's influence will likely be felt in some form and dedicated FromSoftware fans owe it to themselves not only to check out the early 2010s anime movie trilogy, but the rest of the series, as well.
Princess Mononoke (1997)
One of the more grizzly Studio Ghibli releases, 1997's Princess Mononoke marries a beautifully-rendered, larger-than-life high fantasy world with allegories for relatable issues of the modern-day. The film's influence could primarily be felt in FromSoftware's 2019 outing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but elements from the film may well crop up in Elden Ring, as well.
The lush, vast landscapes seen in Princess Mononoke are set to be a core feature in FromSoftware's title, and themes of humanity overstepping its bounds and meddling with the natural order of the world are key components of the developer's narrative structures.
