Featured Image Credit: HBO / Sky / Album / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Film and TV, HBO
Rhiannon Ingle
Fans have been left in disbelief following a stomach-churning scene in the most recent episode of The Last of Us, and even dubbed it as 'disgusting'.
WARNING: CONTAINS THE LAST OF US EPISODE TWO SPOILERS
The highly-anticipated new HBO drama series has been a smash-hit so far, debuting with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.
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Starring the likes of Pedro Pascal, this new television series was adapted from the widely popular video game with the same title.
Following the story of a man and a teenage girl journeying through a perilous zombie apocalypse, The Last of Us has already gained a hugely positive reception from fans.
Tensions certainly rise in the second episode, titled 'Infected', with gory attacks, bizarre encounters and a lethal explosion.
In the official The Last of Us podcast on Spotify, host Troy Baker spoke to executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann about the latest episode.
When talking about the run-up to the 'disgusting' scene, Druckmann says: "And then the bad thing happens."
The 'bad thing' in question is arguably one of the goriest on-screen kisses in television history.
When asked by Baker, 'What is the kiss to you?' Druckmann starts off by detailing the creative process behind the scene.
Namely, he highlights the emphasis to 'get into this intimate moment and treat it like an intimate moment'.
"What if we shot it like two people kissing and you just think about it that way.
"There's already so much horror with what's happening," Druckmann explained - before getting into the nitty-gritty of exactly why the scene caused such a shock among audiences.
"It's like these tendrils coming out of this infected mouth, it's going down her throat, she's gagging - it's just horrible to think about.
"So then, instead of shooting it in a creepy way, let's shoot it in the most beautiful way."
Druckmann also detailed the cinematic ways they shot the 'kiss'.
He said: "Backlit, silhouetted, profile view and then we slowly just come in and in and in as if it was an intimate kiss of two lovers.
"And it made it way creepier.
"I love the way we did that because it's underscoring, again, the theme of love and the way love functions.
"Because, the fungus loves too.
"It makes more of itself and that's what we do when we love each other. A lot of us make more of ourselves and that's how the species is propagated.
"What we are may look disgusting and the way we reproduce may be horrifying and violent but, it is tender."
Speaking about the thought-process behind the gruesome scene, Druckmann explained exactly why the 'kiss' felt so oddly intimate compared to the other dangerous encounters in the series thus far.
"When this man comes to her, it's not violent because she's not fighting.
"If she ran, if she fought back, they would take her apart.
"But she's just standing there and he very gently shares of himself and it is very Jungian, it is very upsetting.
"Anything penetrative is disgusting and scary when you're dealing with monsters," he said.
"There's something so creepy and gross and primal about it yet also weirdly [...] beautiful."
It's no surprise that fans were creeped out by the graphic scene, with one Twitter user calling it: "One of the most disgusting looking kisses I’ve ever seen on live TV."
"Did this woman really just kiss a fungi controlled zombie in the mouth?" another asked.
A third added: "The Last of Us episode 2 kiss in the end gotta be the worst things I’ve ever watched."
The Last of Us is currently available to stream on Sky Atlantic and Now TV.