The Last of Us has been called many things since it began airing eight weeks ago: heart-wrenching, exhilarating, groundbreaking, even. But one thing it is not, is scary. To categorise HBO’s TV adaptation of the hit video game as a horror would be a stretch. Tearful, tender moments far outweigh those of spine-tingling suspense, both in frequency and gravitas. But in its latest episode, The Last of Us finally veered into the horror genre that its zombie label appeared to promise – only there wasn’t a clicker in sight (sorry, Ben Shapiro). Only a rejected man with a God complex.
The episode begins with Ellie (Bella Ramsay at her best) tending to an incapacitated Joel (Pedro Pascal) as he recovers from a serious stab wound. The two are hiding out in the basement of an abandoned house, but food is short. When Ellie goes out to hunt (and snags a deer on her first try), she comes across David (Scott Shepherd), the leader of a religious community that turns out to be straight from a nightmare. For one thing, they’re cannibals.
