I met my partner, Max, on a sunny day in July for a picnic. I brought the charcuterie and he the crudités; we popped a bottle of champagne and started to get to know each other. We talked for hours about work, hobbies, interests and by the time the ants had taken over our hardly eaten food, we were hooked. Max and I both love horror movies, roadside attractions, pizza, and each other; I’m a customer and cosplayer and Max enthusiastically leans into all the crazy projects I put together. Over the last six months Max and I have spent our free time sharing our love of the macabre with a dash of theatrics by cosplaying some of our favorite horror characters.

 

DRIVE IN

2020 was the year of the drive in; Max introduced me to the magical Mission Tiki Drive in and we were hooked. Those first few months of dating was spent every week in the back seat of his car watching double features. Once it was announced that the double for the week was Nightmare on Elm’s St and Scream, two of my absolute favorites, Max insisted that we dress up as Nancy and Ghostface. This was the first time we dressed up together and it sparked our couple costume obsession. These photos always remind me of those first few weeks of knowing Max and how our love blossomed over creature features, slashers, and popcorn.

ADAM AND BARB

Beetlejuice is such a huge influence on me as a young person, and I have dressed up as basically every character from it, so I knew I needed Max to step into this role for me. It was the first time we worked together on a video where we were both acting, and I was worried that we might not work well together. Just because we are a great couple doesn’t mean that translates to working together well. Max is incredibly patient, professional, and talented, and he blew me away. After that I knew we would be creating special things together for a long time.

AUDREY AND SEYMOUR

For this look I introduced Max to Little Shop of Horrors, which he had never seen. I couldn’t believe he had missed out on this gem till now. After watching all we did was listen to the soundtrack over and over; even now it is getting stuck in my head. For this look I asked Max to bring a collared shirt and his “teacher” blazer; but as soon as he put it on immediately I asked him to take it off. He looked way too handsome and suave to be Seymour.

BRIDE AND FRANK

This was the first time I had put Max in SFX makeup, and boy was it an experience. We were watching Dark Night of the Scarecrow that Cinematic Void was presenting and he was constantly moving and tried to stop me from doing the makeup at every moment so I could watch what was happening. Hilariously I learned Max cannot be trusted with a movie while I am doing his makeup, so the next time I put on Jeopardy since you don’t have to watch trivia to enjoy it. No luck, he can’t be trusted to stay still when there is something on the tv; podcasts and music only from now on.

 

CLOWNS

Max and I met online (how else are you meeting people nowadays, right?) and one of his photos was him completely decked out in Clown makeup. I felt like I knew exactly what I was getting into when I matched up with him. The clown makeup was fun, and I knew we both had a love for the weird and wonderful; but I couldn’t have possibly known how weird and wonderful he was. We decided right away to be a clown couple, and have never looked back.

CHUCKY AND TIFF

My parents were out of town, so we were taking photos late one saturday in their kitchen. These Chucky and Tiff looks ended up being really easy and quick to capture, those scars are tattoos, so while we were cleaning up I asked Alexa to play some music. It ended up being a dance party where we took turns choosing songs to dance and loudly sing along to. I added a few of those songs to a Max playlist for special occasions.

SWEENY TODD AND MRS LOVEITT

When Max and I took a trip down to San Diego, we planned a Sweeney Todd look for when we hit the beach. It’s really casually thrown together; a thrifted dress and leggings for the both of us, some boots. We didn’t even plan which beach we would head over to, we just googled the closest beach to where our airbnb was and it ended up being Coronado beach. How could we know that the beach we chose would be gorgeous, the day would be a perfect overcast, and the hotel in the distance would be the perfect backdrop for our photo? We even forgot our tripod so we used an old suitcase that Max had in his trunk to prop up my phone.

FREAKY

I never win anything, Max on the other hand wins all the time. This photo we put together for the contest that Beyond Fest threw to promote their premier of Freaky, the horror movie twist on Freaky Friday. This was completely his idea and composition, I did some editing magic, and bam! We won a pass to Beyond Fest next year. Clearly he’s just got that magic winning touch.

HALLOWEEN

For the final day of my Halloween Costume challenge (#ha31oween), Max and I made a mash up video of several of our favorite killer horror movies including: Nightmare on Elm’s street, Psycho, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream, and Halloween. This was our version of that iconic photo of Jamie Lee and Nick Castle with their Dr. Peppers on set. I love all the silly photos we take as “outtakes,” maybe even more than the staged ones.

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE

This is my absolute favorite photo we took for Halloween. Max for ages has been telling me his ride to work brought him down this strange stretch of land in the desert that looked just like the scenery in Texas Chainsaw Massacre; and he was right! It’s so strange to find a place like this in Southern California, so close to LA. Look how flat the area is! Max and I would shoot takes of me running from him while cars zoomed by; hopefully we gave some of the onlookers a show.

 

I am sure love comes in many forms, but my kind of love is a man you just put in 3 hours of prosthetics and grease paint looking at you with adoration while he picks bits of cotton ball and latex out of his hair. Our kind of love is recreating our favorite scary stories while making new ones of our own. With him I am more human than I am alone, which is a quote from the Fly that is both gross and highly romantic; just like us.

For more Sean and Max follow @qfacepaint on Instagram

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