Signed by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckman, The Last Of Us is an adaptation of the famous video game of the same name. The series follows the perilous journey of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) through a pandemic-ravaged America, during which they face hostile survivors but also the infected.
And among the most emblematic creatures of the video game work we find the Claqueurs, especially because of the sound they produce. In the third stage of infection, Clickers no longer have any trace of humanity, and the fungus has completely taken over the host’s brain functions, to the point where it has taken over almost the entire face.
These creatures are blind, but very sensitive to sound. Therefore there is no need to make noise in their presence in the hope of trapping and killing them. This is what Joel, Tess and Ellie quickly discover when they meet in the second episode of the series.
Human voice!
In a video released by Naughty Dog, the video game development company behind The Last of Us, of which Neil Druck is co-president, the video game designers revisited the creation of Claqueurs. These infected represent the singularity of The Last of Us in the very rich world of post-apocalyptic works where zombies reign.
To differentiate it from other zombie stories, the concept of a fungus, Cordyceps, infecting human hosts and taking over their brain functions was created. As conceptual art progressed, Claqueur appeared. In addition to the visual aspect, audio design became a priority when creating the Claqueurs, as sound is their primary form of communication and the location of their prey.
To create this special sound, the game designers did not invent it, but collected it thanks to the talents of voice actress Misty Lee, as Philip Kovats, PlayStation sound director, explains in the video:
“The infected person had to be emotionally affected. We caught up with actress Misty Lee and she made a dolphin-like sound coming from her throat. We immediately stopped him and asked him if he could continue and how long he could do it. that voice.
After he made that sound for us, we wondered how we were going to transcribe that sound for the male Clicker. And somehow I found that I could reproduce the same sound.”
Philip Kovats also emphasizes the possibility of this sound communication to create a kind of dialogue between the clickers, indicating by sound that they are alert or passive, that they have found a prey, that they are going to attack or that they are going to die.
For the series adaptation of The Last of Us, the team called on the same actors who had already provided voices in the video games. A delight for fans of the video game work, who were able to rediscover the excitement that Claqueurs’ voices already provided in the games, this time transferred to the TV adaptation.
The Last of Us series is available on Prime Video.
Source: Allocine
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
