The Last Of Us episode 5's infected horde was almost entirely practical effects

HBO’s The Last of Us just keeps on delivering the goods. ‘Endure and Survive’ nailed the adaptation of Sam and Henry’s story, improving on the tragic tale in every way. We also got to see the game’s sniper nest level brought to life but we’re here to talk about that scene-stealing Infected horde.

The Last of Us’ showrunners did previously tease there were a few surprises for those of us who already know the story and this was certainly one of them. I’m glad I did not have to face this horde in the game because honestly, I’m not sure I’d have survived. Fans are all in agreement that the child Clicker was nightmare inducing but let’s give a round of applause to the big lad. The squelchy chungus. The Bloater. Did you know that the Bloater was made almost entirely with practical effects?

Can’t wait for episode six? Check out the promo for ‘Kin’ below.

In the digital age we live in, you’d assume that the Bloater was a CGI creation but that’s actually not the case. It may have been enhanced with VFX but the Bloater was actually brought to life by stunt actor Adam Basil. As reported by Eurogamer, the six-foot-six Basil wore an incredible practical suit weighing around 88 pounds (40 kilos) designed by prosthetics designer Barrie Gower. The four-time Emmy winner has previously worked on shows like Stranger Things and Game of Thrones. Take a look below.

In an interview with Variety, designer Gower explained, “The suit would be very soft, but very slimy and wet. We covered him in this gel-like solution, which gave him a gloss to all the fungus. We had lots of little spines and spiky hairs punched into his body, like little growths burrowing out. To get the shapes to read, we had to cover them in a gloss. It was like a texture that we were building up, so we were constantly going in and slathering them in this gloss, just so the shapes would pick up in the silhouettes. We were repeatedly going in and gelling him up more, covering him in this lube, so he was nice and shiny."

Between 10 and 15 stunt performers brought the Clickers to life with around 50 extras rounding out the rest of the Infected horde. We sat down with Perry actor Jeffrey Pierce who opened up about the vast scale of the set, recalling that the entire 15-to-20 house neighbourhood was built entirely from scratch. I think we’ll be talking about this scene for a long time.