The practical shops behind the creatures, with verified filmography credits, reported production budgets and how exposed each one is to the 2026 horror slate.
Chatsworth, Los Angeles, United States · founded by Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger
The most-credited practical shop in modern horror. KNB built the reference language for slasher kills and zombie makeup, then industrialised it for episodic television on The Walking Dead — the show that proved feature-grade prosthetics can be delivered on a weekly cadence.
Chatsworth, Los Angeles, United States · founded by Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr.
Stan Winston alumni who own the studio-scale creature suit. ADI's work sits at the point where horror crosses into science fiction — the Alien sequels, Tremors and the Thing prequel — and their suit performers are usually inside the monster on the day.
Glendale, Los Angeles, United States · founded by Mike Elizalde
The shop directors call when a monster has to act. Spectral Motion's animatronic faces carry dialogue scenes, which is why Guillermo del Toro and the Duffer brothers keep going back — the Demogorgon is theirs.
Wellington, New Zealand · founded by Richard Taylor, Tania Rodger
New Zealand's practical arm, born in splatter before it became a fantasy institution. Peter Jackson's early horror is the workshop's foundation, and its creature and miniature departments still anchor the region's genre productions.
Chesham, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom · founded by Neill Gorton
Britain's fast-turn prosthetic pipeline. Built on BBC schedules, Millennium delivers broadcast-volume creature makeup at feature quality — the reason UK folk horror and infection stories can shoot practical on a television budget.
Sun Valley, Los Angeles, United States · founded by Justin Raleigh
The premium-cable shop. Fractured built its reputation on anthology horror television, where each season resets the creature brief entirely — a workflow that suits the streaming era's short-order genre limited series.
Credits and production budgets as publicly reported · slate demand computed from the tracked 2026 release slate