The People Who Study Fungus Know Why It's Suddenly Taking Over Horror

HBO's smash-hit adaptation The Last of Us is the latest in a string of horror stories featuring fungi as the source of fear. The zombie-like outbreak that takes place in the show, which is based on the dystopian video game series of the same name, stems from a mutated version of a parasitic mushroom which fictionally evolves to attack humans instead of insects. In Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the narrator knows something isn't right with a family and their mansion, and soon discovers an intergenerational secret intertwined with a mycelium network. In last year's What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher, it's a mycologist who discovers the root of the town's sudden mysterious illnesses. Science-fiction's fungal fascination goes back much farther.