Zombie Nation

Ashley MacLure

Anyone who knows me knows that I spend a great deal of attention towards enhancing my outward beauty. Airbrushed nails, shimmery eyeshadows, perfectly plucked brows and cotton candy stained lips are all matters of necessity to this girly girl. Each fall on October 31, armies of women dress up as vampires, or witches, or [insert any grotesque and macabre creature here]. Me? I’m busy applying body glitter and big fake lashes while thanking the heavens above for an excuse to slut-up my wardrobe, even if just for one night.

This year, I decided to dabble in a little pre-Halloween de-beautification: I got made over (well, made under) as a zombie for the 2012 Providence Zombie Pub Crawl. This was no haphazard throw-some-baby-pow- der-on-my-face-to-look-dead thing either; I turned to Jesse Corey, the horrifically talented makeup artist behind Cranston’s Core Creations, for a total zombification, complete with oozing sores and open flesh wounds. That’s sexy, right?

Jesse seemed super excited at the opportunity to gory me up, noting that the makeup application would take about an hour. She asked if I had allergies to latex, and encouraged my input as to shaping the “look” I wanted. My natural instinct found me replying, “I want to look like a zombie but not a disgusting zombie – i.e. no bones sticking out of my face.” Ugh, I thought to myself, I’m being such a princess. I shook my head. “On second thought, just do whatever you want.”

I arrived at the Cranston studio at 5pm, barefaced and curious. Jesse had prepared a mold ahead of time: Apparently I would be strutting my stuff around town with a circular saw protruding from my body. “It’s a real blade,” she said with a proud smile. “My boyfriend sanded the edges down, though, so you won’t injure anybody.” Um, he what?! She looked me up and down. Her smile grew larger. “Your outfit is perfect!” I had planned ahead and ordered a post-apocalyptic vest fashioned from bicycle tire inner tubes that exposedboth my stomach and my chest, per my slut-it-up-it’s-Halloween tendencies. Jesse held the mold up against my body, searching for the perfectspot on which to affix it; she decided it would be most noticeable nestled just above my cleavage. Lovely.

I was surprised at how quickly the time passed as I sat in her chair beingpoked, prodded, dusted with liquid latex and dabbed with gobs of fake blood. She tore bits of toilet paper off the roll and pasted them on me,dabbing the mounds with makeup, building Hollywood-worthy wounds on my body and face while intermititently blasting me with puffs of hot air from a blowdryer. Eventually it was time for me to take a look at myself in the mirror. Holy crap was I atrocious! It was perfect. Core Creations makeovers include a photoshoot, courtesy of Jesse’s cousin Amanda Corey. The transformation experience was so incredibly cool, I wanted to remember it forever and as I posed for the camera, my wound-covered face being lit up by bright bulbs, I knew that I would.

The PVD Social Club was stop one on the annual crawl; my friend Ellen and I arrived there promptly at 7:30pm. The undead - in all shapes, sizes and levels of decomposition – came out in full force. I knew immediately that my makeup looked sick (in a good way) simply by all the appreciative stares and compliments I received. Huh. I thought. Maybe I should dress like this everyday. If nothing else, the makeup and prosthetics cover my ever-increasing wrinkles, and there’s something to be said for that indeed.

I was a bit disappointed in the crawl itself because – in comparison to pub crawls I’ve done in other cities – the execution of this one was haphazard due to the fact that pub crawls are a no-no in Providence. We were given a list of bars, but the group didn’t travel as a whole. It was more of a fend for yourself thing, which took away from the essence of the “horde,” in my mind at least. In any event, at least I wasn’t subjected to several hundred drunken zombies all at once... I am getting a little bit old for that. One thing I will definitely never be too old for, however, is dressing up come Halloween. Read more and see photos of the makeover as part of our “An Hour in the Life Of” web series.