Lawyer by day and pumpkin carver master at night, Cranbourne resident Corey Mathrick’s annual show time is approaching.
Every year during Halloween, he puts out all sorts of carved pumpkins in sophisticated designs around the house, fascinating the community and getting everyone excited about the spooky night.
This year, he’s encouraging people to cut their own pumpkins.
“Go to Coles, buy a pumpkin, get a sharpie, look up a design, any design that you want, and have a go at it,” he said.
Corey first started to carve pumpkins in 2013 when he hosted a big Halloween party at his house.
His grandfather used to carve a lot of pumpkins around Halloween and that year he took a stab at the large vegetable and realised it was not that hard.
It was messy taking the top off the pumpkin and ripping the guts out while not breaking the pumpkin, but he considered it unexpectedly fun, even as the most self-claimed uncoordinated man on the face of the earth.
“You got to enjoy the end result, and everyone enjoys looking at them, and just kept me wanting to come back for more, and each year I keep coming back,” he said.
Starting with simple designs and rudimentary pumpkins, Corey gradually journeyed far into complicated creations.
His most complicated works has to be a witch from Snow White.
“She’s sitting there holding the apple, and the fingers are inside the apple on its own, not the worst design I’ve ever had to do,” he said.
“However, as I was carving the final finger, it broke, snapped on me, and nearly sent me into a spiral for the night.
“I managed to collect myself, get some toothpicks out, break it down into fractions, and put it back together with the toothpick. But that pumpkin did test sanity the most out of all of them.”
Corey has been glad to see more and more Australians throwing themselves into the celebration on Halloween.
“Every single year, the batches of pumpkins get bigger and the decorations get bigger,” he said.
“I see more trick or treats, and I love it.
“I love knowing that there are people out there who are getting into this, who are seeing that it’s a really fun night and you can you can make it whatever you want.”
According to the research from Australian Retailers Association (ARA) in collaboration with Roy Morgan, more than five million Australians will celebrate Halloween this year, with around $490m spending forecast.
Up to this day, Corey has still been experimenting with new designs and he keeps pushing everyone else to get involved in the festival.
“At the end of the day, Halloween’s about having fun being a bit weird and pushing boundaries,” he said.
“So go out there and do it.”
Corey is teaching and helping neighbours carve pumpkins on Nextdoor, and encouraging everyone to add their home to Nextdoor’s Treat Map so people know if they’re getting involved in Trick or Treating this year.
