Now that's a REALLY smashing pumpkin: Artist carves zombie masterpiece out of giant veg



Forget traditional Jack O’Lanterns this Halloween - artist Ray Villafane has created something dead special out of one of this year's biggest pumpkins.



Perfectionist Ray spent hours painstakingly carving the huge orange fruit to create a pumpkin masterpiece featuring hideous zombies spewing orange guts in New York's botanical gardens.



Incredibly, Ray has had no formal training and learnt his amazing craft purely by picking up a scalpel and having a go.

Horror veg: Pumpkin-carver extraordinaire Ray Villafane sculpted this incredible zombie pumpkin at New York's Botanical Gardens

Ray, an established artist known also for his incredible toy and sand sculptor, had something special in mind for this year’s event in the shape of grizzly zombies.

He used two of the largest pumpkins from this year’s harvest, one of them a record-holder, to create a creepy scene featuring zombies covered in pumpkin guts crawling out of a giant squash.

Dead clever: A close up shows the incredible detail of Ray's work

Hard at work: Pumpkin master Ray used two of the largest pumpkins from this years harvest to create his creepy scene

Ray spent hours painstakingly carving his undead work of art, but his efforts were generously rewarded with cheering and clapping.

Ray Villafane used Brant and Eleanor Bordsen’s 1,693 pound pumpkin to create the zombies.



