You walk into Brad’s Boo Barn Haunted House and see the gory flesh falling off the zombie’s face, the blood dripping from the open face wound; it all looks so real. That’s because of the people who spend countless hours and dedicate themselves to make this fantasy real life.
Sophomore Emma Cunningham is one of these people.
“I started last year because I got really into the T.V. show “The Walking Dead” and I wanted to be a zombie for Halloween, but I wanted to do my own makeup so I went to the store and got paint, fake blood, and liquid latex. I looked up YouTube videos on doing zombie makeup and I was pretty good at that and ever since, I continued practicing,” Cunningham said.
Not only does she do bloody and gory makeup, but she also does homecoming makeup and face paint for birthday parties.
“Doing makeup for other people usually takes me around 10-15 minutes depending on what they want,” Cunningham said.
This isn’t just a hobby for Cunningham either. She is looking to take classes at Vancouver Film School to become a professional makeup artist.
“I want to be taking classes that teach me about making prosthetics, fake hair, and other things like that and how to properly apply those and also different techniques for painting like using air brush, mixing colors, and creating different textures. Other than that I also want to learn more about beauty makeup.”
Even though Cunningham does get paid for her talent in makeup, she said she just does it for her own enjoyment.
“I love to do makeup just for the experience and to improve my skills, but if people offer to pay me for this, I won’t turn it down,” Cunningham said.