Barrie Gower, a renowned prosthetic makeup designer, has unveiled the intricate and somewhat unsettling creative process behind the monstrous designs in HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us. Gower had always looked to the natural world for inspiration. His private dislike for mushrooms inspired the design of the freaky, fungus-ridden Infected, central players in the series’ post-apocalyptic horror storyline. The series draws inspiration from the award-winning video game. It’s about people fighting a parasitic brain infection that zombifies them and makes them man-eating monsters.
For Gower, the grotesque would enter his world through his aversion to mushrooms. He said their feel and scent were most disgusting to him. Inspired by this animus, he channeled it toward finding these grotesque shapes that he wanted The Infected to take. Sure, his personal dislike sparked a veritable wave of creativity. It challenged him to develop shapes that are both ghastly yet beautiful. He was inspired by Mother Nature, in particular the Venus flytrap. Combined with those vast depths, he crafted an unparalleled aesthetic that is hauntingly gorgeous yet terrifying.
Gower’s team has created a really remarkable creature, in The Bloater. This huge, spore-spewing creature serves as the true physical manifestation of a fungal infection. While designing The Bloater, it was a tough process as the costume turned out to be very cumbersome. As it turned out, the costume ended up being way heavier than anyone expected. The additional bulk inhibited Adam Basil’s mobility and agility, which made it difficult for him to give a quality performance on set.
To keep the miserable heat that built up inside the Bloater costume at bay, Gower and his crew came up with some ingenious methods. They brought in a pop-up tent with an air-conditioning unit so Basil could cool off between takes. In addition, they used hot-water bottles to cool performers who wore full-body historical costumes during the immersive production.
Designer Michele Clapton, who worked on the series, noted that the process of cutting and bending the metal was incredibly labor-intensive. It was a very painful process because the armorists just hated it; they really self-mutilated. It’s almost like a huge cheese grater.
The Bloaters costume was an intense, heavy creation. It was made out of six segments that attached to the performer in a kind of zipper fashion. To cool Basil down between takes, the crew would speedily unzip the back of the costume to fan him down. This campaign shed light on the inhumane conditions thespians endured while bringing these heinous creatures to life.
To ensure meticulous detail in their designs, Gower and his team purchased numerous “grow your own mushroom kits” to photograph and 3D print. As a result of this campaign, 15 different varieties of mushrooms were collected from all over the country. These fungi, of course, became central touchstones throughout the design process. Fungus was an important worldbuilding tool in shaping The Infected. This stylization did more than simply celebrate their women warriors’ badassery, it served to heighten the true terror.
In making The Infected, Gower wanted audiences to feel scared and uncomfortable. But when she’s like, ‘Oh God no dad, I don’t like the look,’ I know we’ve achieved. This deep awareness of how the audience would react helped his design decisions go in a more daring direction to achieve real scares.
The creative team at Wētā FX in New Zealand collaborated with Gower to solve the mysteries of the tactile, physical costume. We were thrilled that they were able to create such a stunning digital interpretation of The Bloater. Hundreds of detailed scans resulted in rich textures and lovely details. This technology made possible a truly breathtaking artistic vision that went beyond the confines of traditional sculpting mediums.
The Last of Us takes you on a harrowing, tension-filled journey of endurance. Our heroes are up against truly impossible odds in a world shattered from a fungal pandemic. As both antagonists and reflections of humanity’s fight against nature turned monstrous, the Infected are a classic horror trope. Every design choice purposefully embodies a powerful thematic thread. What emerges from this exploration are not simply creatures as monsters, but as cultural embodiments of fear and hopelessness.
Aaron Sims, a legendary figure of creature design, once said about the kind of pressure involved in adapting beloved properties. “When there’s a pre-existing fanbase, there’s already all this scrutiny and expectation,” he said. With fans, either you pass or fail—and you have no control over it. This scrutiny adds pressure on creators like Gower and his team to deliver designs that resonate with audiences while remaining true to the source material.
Despite the production pains and challenges in executing designs, Gower said that she was pleased with the designs resulting in the raw space. His unique approach blending personal experiences with artistic vision has allowed him to create some of television’s most memorable and terrifying creatures.