Starring - Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones), and Isabela Merced (Superman, Transformers: The Last Knight)
Release Date - 2025
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Every path has a price"
Format - UHD (Personal Collection) (Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
I've decided to revisit one of my favorite sub-genres this year after spending sometime away from it after it's rise in popularity. I've always been a fan of zombies but I took a major break over the last few years when The Walking Dead brought them into pop culture and hundreds of unimaginative clones started hitting store shelves. I figured enough time has passed since it's premier in 2010 so I decided to dive back into the show and zombies in general. I ventured through The entire Walking Dead series, it's spinoff series, webisodes, and shorts before moving on to some other movies like Romero's Dead series. A few weeks back I received the second season of the acclaimed horror show The Last of Us which was adapted from an award winning game. I really enjoyed the first season and couldn't wait to dive into this one.
This season picks up with Ellie (Ramsey) and Joel (Pascal) living in the Jackson community after arriving at the end of season 1. Joel and Ellie's relationship has became strained but Joel refuses to turn his back on Ellie. What neither of them know is that a group from Seattle have camped in a lodge near their community who plan on making Joel pay for what he had done in the hospital on their way to Jackson. They are able to find them and kill Joel before leaving when an army of infected rip through their walls. Ellie is able to get back to Jackson during the aftermath and once they are done refortifying their walls she sneaks out with Dina to find the group responsible for killing Joel.
I can't tell you if either season of the show is faithful to the game but I can tell you that this show is damn good even though it reminds me a lot of previous zombie films and series that came before it. It's hard to make a zombie show stand out and if you can't then you need to make it be entertaining which it does. The acting in this one is very well done. The entire cast is great and several of these performances becoming iconic yet Bella Ramsey receives hate for her role. She's crushes her role here but her character is hard to like. I understand the importance of her character and how she connects to the story but there is several scenes where I had high hopes that she would meet her end. That has to do with her acting ability and not her as a person. The story for this one continues what was started in the first season but doesn't go as far as I had hoped. We follow Joel and Ellie who start to fall apart while their lives adjust to having a safe place to live. However, after Joel's death we follow the survivors as they disagree on their course of action. While the infected are a serious danger, the real danger is the survivors they encounter which is similar to other zombie shows like The Walking Dead, Z Nation, and so many more. It's not something new or groundbreaking but it works with the story around Ellie who can't be infected and the zombies that are infected with a fungus that takes over. It's all works into something fun but doesn't really reinvent the wheel. Finally, the series has a lot make-up effects and even more visual effects. The make-up effects used on the close up scenes look solid but most of the visuals used are noticeable and cheap looking. I would have loved more practical effects, especially with the gore, but you can't win them all. Overall, The Last of Us Season 2 is a worthy season to the original run of the show. While I can't verify how close to the game the show is, it's very entertaining if you are looking for a horror centered show to check out.
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