Haven’t seen HBO’s The Last of Us yet? Then be prepared for a viewing that captures love, loss, and fungi-controlled monsters. Since the series premiered, fans have been introduced to varying classes of Infected. In episode 2, we were brought face to face with the terrifying sight of the Clickers. However, in the show’s latest episode, "Endure and Survive", we are faced with the on-screen debut of an even more deadly being – the Bloater. Barrie Gower, the show’s prosthetics designer discusses how the lumbering & heinous creature was brought to life.
When we met the bloater in the Episode 5, the creature emerges from an underground tunnel in the wake of a swarm of Clickers. Reaping heads from shoulders, crushing the bones of those who stood in its way, it became clear quickly that this was the most formidable foe yet. Gower is undeniably a master of creating terrifying creatures, having created the full-body prosthetics for Stranger Things' Vecna, and winning four Emmys over the course of his career. Bower has now explained just how he was able to bring the Bloater, played by 6’6” U.K. stuntman Adam Basil, to life.
While speaking to Variety, Gower offered a more detailed explanation:
“We had a whole copy of his body that we modeled the bloater prosthetics over in modeling clay. We cast it out of a foam rubber and foam latex, which is very lightweight. It’s almost like an upholstery foam, a very spongy sort of material. That was all molded and cast in separate sections: top half, head, arms, legs. We had a team who fabricated all these parts together. We had a zipper up the back and around the waist that we could zip them together. He had all these pendulous folds of fungus which hid zippers and poppers.”
Weighing approximately 40 kilograms, the bloater suit needed to be visible at night, given the time of day the bloater appears and to do this, Gower explains the team relied on gel and slimy lubricant. “The suit would be very soft, but very slimy and wet,” he says. “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.”
Are The Bloaters Undefeatable?
There is a consensus of certain death when facing a Clicker unprepared in the games, but with a Bloater – and reinforced by its terrifying TV debut – it seems a smarter decision to just run. Given their immense size and lumbering movements, getting away from it might be doable. As seen in the scene, rapid gunfire seems to have no effect on the creature and close combat is inadvisable. It will be interesting to see just how one can put down a Bloater in coming episodes.
The Last of Us airs its next episode on February 19. Watch the episode trailer below: