Terror? You can make it up: Weekend chats to the creator of Screamfest's gruesome looks, Julie Tickle

Every year she uses her creative flair to design and make the intricate and creepy characters for Staffordshire’s Screamfest, a fright night attraction, which attracts more than 18,000 thrill-seekers.

From zombies and living dead to witches and clowns, the 39-year-old has just under 200 prosthetics to mould, with the help of her husband James, to create anything from boils and scars to deformed facial features, eye sockets, bullet holes and stitches.

Based at the National Forest Adventure Farm, in Tatenhill, Staffordshire, the event runs for 15 blood-curdling nights every October and November and features more than 130 live actors, staff and extras each day in a terrifying extreme scare experience.

Julie, who splits her time between her day job at a pharmaceutical company and family face painting business Funky Faces, spends up to six months preparing for the spooky extravaganza.

“It isn’t something I ever thought I would do. I started just doing kids face paint at the National Forest Adventure Farm 10 years ago and it has gradually got bigger and bigger each year.

“I found a real passion for scare artistry and each year we just like to push the boundaries and find innovative new ways to make the designs even more gruesome and shocking.”

Julie starts planning, testing and creating the looks for each of the event’s five themed attractions in April to bring the designer’s concept to life.

Working from her home workshop means the job can sometimes throw up some unusual family situations.

“My family don’t flinch now when they come down in the morning for breakfast and see me in a full face of scare make up or hoovering as a zombie. They have nerves of steel.

“We have eyeballs and severed fingers on the kitchen table. It really is something that consumes our lives for that six months as I aim to get the perfect look,” says Julie.

Each costume needs to be durable and last through the night so she has to bear this in mind when coming up with a design and she tests and retests each look until she is confident it will work.

“I start by looking at the concept and then researching how we are going to make the actor look like their jaw has been dislocated, or their mouth is sewn up for example,” says Julie, who makes all of the latex prosthetics, masks and designs from her home in Newhall, Derbyshire.

“I also need to think about health and safety as well. If I need to make it look like the actor’s mouth is sewn up how do I make sure they can still breathe, that they can wear it for a long time.

“When we first launched the Demonica scare attraction, the characters had their eyes gauged out. If I am going to cover an actor’s eyes on a dark set you need to know they can see what they are doing.”

In the UK, scare attractions themselves are relatively new so through her work at Screamfest Julie has been at the forefront of crafting new and interesting looks.

“When we started eight years ago there weren’t many people doing scare attractions it was a relatively new concept. So, I didn’t have many points of reference we had to work it all out.

“I have basically learnt along the way through trial and error and taken a lot of influence from American make-up artists who are very much established in the industry.”

In the early days this meant that Julie’s testing was even more crucial as she discovered red blood didn’t work with red lighting as it just ended up looking black.

“There are so many things like lighting that affect the ultimate finish. We now use a lot of orange and brown blood on set as if the actors are working in rooms with red strobe lighting the red blood won’t show up.”

Each night there are around 130 actors including students from South Staffordshire College and Burton and South Derbyshire College to get ready in just over an hour leaving Julie relying on some of her initial face painting training.

“As a face painter I am used to working quickly. When you have a line of kids all waiting and watching you, you learn to be efficient and get the best look in the quickest time.”

Now she is passing on these skills by running workshops and teaching students working at Screamfest to help in their own career development.

“It is great to pass on my knowledge and help others starting on their journey. Some students come for work experience because they want to go in to theatre work, or be a make up artist or even face painter.

“The skills the event gives these students are immense and really help in their career progression as they can’t get that live experience anywhere else.

“I’ve had one student travel from Birmingham this year as she can’t get work experience in theatrical horror anywhere else.”

Now in its eighth year Screamfest has launched its 13th new attraction – Insomnia – this year and Julie is already looking at ways to push her talents as she starts to create full latex face masks.

“I can’t imagine not doing this now. It has become a part of me and my family’s life,” she says.

It taken two years of research and planning to build Insomnia, a chilling indoor maze based around a child’s nightmare, and a further six months of design to make the concept work in the space at the farm and three months to construct.

“It may seem effortless as you experience each attraction but a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to make sure that each visitor gets the ultimate experience.

“Every detail is carefully researched, planned and tested to create the ultimate scare,” says Ivor Robinson, who runs the farm with his brother Tom.

Along with Insomnia there is Demonica where visitors travel to the underworld and Freakout featuring a circus of freaks and creeps who have set up a funhouse.

Also ready to give you the heebie-jeebies is Love Hurts with a speed dating night hosted by Professor Heart and Dia de los Muertos where you can join the Festival of the Dead as you try to escape from an invasion of skeletons.

But what can take a few hours for scared visitors to run around has taken years of meticulous preparation and research for the team.

Each year Ivor and Tom travel to America to attend Transworld’s Halloween and Attraction Show – the biggestscare convention in the world – for tips and latest props and ideas to make their attraction stand out.

Combining all of this industry insight and latest innovations the duo then work with designers to craft the attractions based on what they think will give us the biggest fright.

They say it’s important for each attraction to have a detailed storyline and plot which unfolds on the night.

“Each attraction has a very in-depth storyline and theme behind it. It isn’t a case of finding all of the things that scare people and putting them in one room.

“We craft a concept which will have the most impact, that plays on your fears and builds up the tension to create the ultimate fright that gets into your head.

“Screamfest hones in on these senses and in designing each scare we accumulate all the background information and added colour that will turn a scary situation in to the ultimate fright,” says Ivor.

This means that not only do the team research and spend years planning the ultimate plot for each scare they also use live actors and set designs that look like they have come from a movie scene to bring it all to life.

Each of the actors go through a rigorous training package and are taught the best ways to move and react to create the ultimate scare and terrifying atmosphere

“It is a real team effort. It isn’t just about that one night,” says Julie.

Around 14 tonnes of wood is used in building the five different scare attractions which are spread out over 37 acres of the National Forest Adventure Farm.

“It really is a labour of love and we spend months meticulously building the sets to get the perfect finish,” says Tom who personally builds each of the sets for the five attractions.

”When you have been planning it, living and breathing it for so long, it becomes an obsession and nothing but the best will do as we can’t wait to bring that concept to life.

• Screamfest runs on selected nights until November 3 from 7pm. It;s suitable for people aged 12 and over. For tickets and more information see www.screamfest.co.uk