Everyone loves a good haunted house to explore on Halloween. Petrifying scares, terrifying landscapes, and horrifying scare actors make the experience that much more chilling. One of our students here at CHS is contributing to the magic! Olivia Kumar has been obsessed with makeup, and as of recently SFX makeup, ever since she got her hands on her very first eye-shadow pallet. Now she will be pursuing her passion by showing off her skills on the very actors that terrify us.
Kumar received her first-ever eye-shadow pallet in intermediate school and immediately fell in love with all the pretty matte and sparkly shades. Automatically sparks flew which led to her love for makeup that she still has today. The pandemic was an incredibly unsettling time for everyone during 2020, but while the world was under lockdown, many found themselves bored and tried to find ways to cope. Kumar was no exception, as the pandemic went on, she found herself experimenting more and more with her makeup tools and accidentally created a special effects creature.
“I was just doing my makeup for fun one day,” recalls Kumar. “I just started to put a bunch of colors on my face to see what would happen and I ended up turning myself into a mermaid,”
After this amazing new discovery, Kumar had her heart set on learning more about the intricacies of special effects makeup. Practicing and watching tutorials on YouTube was an incredible tool for making her gift grow. Not only did this spark a new hobby for Kumar, but she also took into account how this could be a potential career path. TV shows such as The Walking Dead and The Last of Us were a major influence on her work, making her consider doing SFX effects for the entertainment industry one day. It even made her want to start sharing her work with the world. Be sure to check her out on Instagram @livs_sfxcorner
“I started an Instagram account to maybe get some eyes on me and on my work,” says Kumar. “Instagram was one of the platforms I haven’t worked with very much so I decided, why not?” she enthusiastically stated.
For many in northern Indiana, Haunted Hills is a pretty popular haunted house that thrives during the fall season. The park consists of three main haunted attractions, Haunted Hills Hospital Haunted House, Sickbilly Sideshow Haunted Attraction, and the Fearlab Haunt Experience. This is a very memorable experience for visitors, but specifically the memorable, or some may say haunting, experience is from the scare actors. Recently, Haunted Hills posted on its website about job openings for the makeup artist position, Kumar saw her shot and took it!
With her incredible talent and charm, Kumar secured the job, her first ever job might I add. Her position would entail creating eerie looks on the actors, making it as horrifying as possible. While there are no specific looks she will be doing, she is excited nonetheless! Her hope for this job is to build up the skills to make her techniques stronger than ever before and gain experience for what it would hopefully be like working in a major production in Hollywood.
“I would love to be able to create these awesome characters and monsters that freak people out,” Kumar said with delight.
Congratulations Olivia Kumar for achieving an incredible opportunity that not every student gets as their first job. Every job has its perks and is a great learning experience. It also gives opportunities that are important in everyday life such as teamwork, time management, and learning responsibility. Good luck Kumar on your first day and definitely come to Haunted Hills to check out the incredible time and talent she has put into creating these creepy creatures!
