The Last Of Us' practical effects are a 'masterpiece', fans agree

Though 'Long, Long Time' didn't feature the infected as much as the other two episodes, the threat of their existence and the enormous shift the world has suffered was tangible. Bill only survives the culling that the troops enact because he's hiding in a bunker and Frank falls into one of Bill's traps intended for stray infected humans.

Looking at how Cordyceps controls insects offered both Naughty Dog and the makeup and prosthetics team at HBO's The Last of Us opportunities to showcase the horror and the fascination of how something like this would warp the human form. I know I'm not alone when I try to cover the telly whenever those tendrils slither out of host's mouth. Nasty.

The list of people to thank for our morbid awe is as long as my arm and it's obvious they've put a lot of care and detail into the makeup and prosthetics. As the fungus erupts from the skull and "blooms" outwards, you see in one Clicker that the force has split their upper jaw in two, showing off the relentless survival instinct of the Cordyceps to spread. And, the infected that Ellie finds in the basement of the store has fungi growing from one eye, with polypores on their cheek looking a little like gills.

"Huge sets, smart use of CGI, smart prosthetics, great stunt work (zombiefied and human), with immaculate production design. You can feel every surface," said Brendan Hodges of the show. Barrie Gower, one of The Last of Us' prosthetic designers who worked on Stranger Things and House of the Dragon, said that his time on the apocalyptic series was "a bit of a dream come true." I feel like we have different dreams, Barrie, but more power to you.