[Interview] Pumpkin Artist Sarah “Bloodstain” Blostein on Winning ‘Halloween Wars’ 2024
Long before she became a pumpkin artist and movie costuming designer, where she earned her nickname on the set of The Boys, Sarah Blostein, aka “Bloodstain”, always loved Halloween, fascinated when she first watched her dad do more than just carve a pumpkin but actually sculpt it into a true work of art, providing the earliest inspiration for what would eventually take her to this year’s 14th season All Stars edition of the Food Network competition series Halloween Wars, where her team Scream of the Crop won the ultimate championship, but not before working on some horror favorites like It and The Last of Us.
In our wide ranging video conversation last week, when asked if her early passion for Halloween and monsters is what lead her into costuming and movie effects work, Bloodstain said, “Absolutely, I am 100% sure that I went into costumes because of Halloween.” She later adds, “Were it not for Halloween, who knows what I’d be doing.”
The 2024 season of Halloween Wars was no ordinary season, as brought together teams each lead by former winners of the show, some going back many years, pitting the best of the best against each other, as Blostein was on team Scream of the Crop with sugar artist Sarah Arnold and Season 4 winner cake artist Kyle Miller. As a long time fan of the show, she told us she was beyond excited and a bit nervous to be competing against icons and legends in field.
In addition to her rise as a pumpkin artist champion, we also took a deep dive into many of the film and series projects that Bloodstain has lent her talents of blood work to, from working closely with “Georgie” and being among the first get a glimpse of Pennywise on the set of 2017’s It and earning her nickname working on the ultra gory whale scene in Season 2 of The Boys to feeling like Mary Magdalene as she washed Doug Jones feed on the set of The Strain and much more.
When Hulu needed an actual pumpkin sculpted to resemble the killer creature in this year’s wildly fun Halloween horror comedy Carved, of course they called in Bloodstain, who used a breed called Red Warty Thing in creating a vision of the monster gourd having actually carved the film’s title into another pumpkin.
Of course we also talked about celebrating Halloween itself, her favorite traditions, and how her teammates and co-competitors bonded on set when they filmed more than a year ago and are in fact closer than ever today, as Bloodstain tells us that she has found a whole new family within in community.
You can watch our full exclusive video interview with Sarah “Bloodstain” Blostein below.
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