The gruesome beasts that emerge from a suburban crater in the latest episode of HBO’s TV series “The Last of Us” don’t look like your average neighborhood zombies. First there’s a swarm of formerly human mutants whose faces seem to have burst outward into the kind of mushroomy blossoms you’d find under a log in the forest. Then comes a giant “bloater,” a monster covered head-to-toe with the kingdom of fungi. His head has growth that resembles chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms, the type that look like wavy shelves on the side of a tree. Across his grotesque torso are moist, rubbery pustules that look a bit like puffball mushrooms (which, in the hands of a good chef, actually are quite tasty).

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