This Is How “The Last of Us” Recorded Clicker Sounds and Yup, It’s Still Terrifying

This Is How “The Last of Us” Recorded Clicker Sounds and Yup, It’s Still Terrifying
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IMHO, HBO’s The Last of Us introduced the scariest type of post-apocalyptic monster, and although the season 1 finale aired on March 12, the mushroom-like mutants still haunt my nightmares.

Starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, the horror-drama series takes place 20 years after a viral fungal infection named Cordyceps ravaged global civilization and destroyed functioning society. Those affected by the disease are known as Infected, and quickly transform into aggressive, horrific human-sized fungi (but no, they’re not zombies).

the last of us
Liane Hentscher/HBO

There are six stages of infection: Runners, Stalkers, Clickers, Bloaters, Shamblers, and Rat King (*shudder*). The third type, Clickers, have been infected for about one year and have become blind from the Cordyceps mutations. They use echolocation to track down uninfected, emitting a super terrifying, spine-chilling clicking noise when they sense their prey.

While the sounds are particularly otherworldly, it turns out that they are not a product of Hollywood magic and sound mixing. There are real, live voice actors behind the clicking. Twitter account @TheLastofUsNews posted a video of these actors creating the noises for the series, and, yup, I’m sleeping with the lights on tonight.

In a February 2023 interview with Polygon, voice actor Misty Lee — who’s lended her clicking to HBO’s The Last of Us and the original PlayStation video game of the same name — explained how the sound came to life.

the last of us
Liane Hentscher/HBO

“It started with acting. One of the things they said to me early on was to imagine I was in a backpack on my own body. You can see what’s going on, but you can’t control it. Your own hands are tearing into the people you love. What does that sound like to you? And that was it. That’s where we started,” Lee explained.

“You imagine the pain and the anguish. It started with weeping and screaming, and trying to stop my own hands from doing something that they’re not supposed to be doing, and also something that’s breaking my own heart. And it just started to morph and we just went with it,” she continued.

OK, still terrified and hope to never hear this sound IRL — well, that is until season 2 of The Last of Us drops on HBO, ofc.

the last of us
Liane Hentscher/HBO

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