Studios developing horror stories often rely on special effects wizards to bring those stories to life. Lee Romaire, founder of Romaire Studios, is one of those wizards. For more than two decades, studios have turned to Romaire to help craft the kinds of fantastic creatures that make horror stories feel startlingly real.
Romaire, who is an Emmy Award-winning artist, formed Romaire Studios in 2002 as a boutique creature and character company providing makeup, puppets, and special effects for movies, TV, and commercials. Over time, however, the studio grew to become one of the foremost providers of live-action creatures, characters, and animated and non-animated props for the worldwide entertainment industry.
Lee Romaire’s long history of bringing hair-raising creatures to life
Not long after opening its doors, Romaire Studios was asked by the legendary Brian Henson to work on a project featuring the stories of horror mastermind Stephen King. Henson told Romaire he needed him to create the special-effects makeup and costume for soldiers in a sequence called Battleground, which was part of the TV series “Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King.”
“I’m very proud of the work Romaire Studios was able to contribute to ‘Nightmares and Dreamscapes,’” Romaire says. “The particular episode we worked on focused on a hit man who receives a mysterious package filled with toy soldiers after he kills a toy executive. Once the package is opened, the toy soldiers come to life and launch an assault on the hit man. Brian could have relied on the Henson Creature Shop to do the work, but trusted me and my studio, which was just starting out at the time.”
Fast forward nearly two decades, and Romaire was invited to play a role in an epic project involving another superstar from the world of horror stories. Guillermo Del Toro needed props that would realistically depict dead animals for his 2025 production of “Frankenstein,” including some that looked like they had been mauled by The Creature. Mike Hill, the Oscar-winning special effects make-up artist tasked with designing the creature’s make-up, reached out to Romaire for assistance.
Working with a team of 10 to 15 people at his studio, Romaire crafted the dead animals over a period of four months and delivered them to the “Frankenstein” set in Toronto. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Production Design, and won the 2026 Critics Choice Award for Best Production Design.
Lee Romaire has seen horror special effects evolve over time
Technology and entertainment go hand in hand, especially when the stories being told involve fantastic creatures. Romaire has seen the technology utilized in that area evolve over the years to a point where its effects are truly remarkable.
“When I first got started doing makeup and creature work, foam latex was being replaced by silicone, but the new technology hadn’t yet been perfected,” Romaire recalls. “Today, silicone applications have been perfected to a level that truly looks like real skin. It’s really difficult to tell the difference.”
Romaire has also seen 3D scanning become part of the creature-crafting process. The technology is used to map an actor’s face so applications can be sculpted digitally and finished with 3D printing.
How Lee Romaire uses his creature-crafting skills in today’s top theme parks
While today’s horror films continue to rely on practical special effects, as Romaire’s work in “Frankenstein” illustrates, digital effects have come to play a leading role in many modern projects. As Romaire saw the shift taking place, he found another venue that could benefit from his expertise.
“I began responding to requests for work in theme parks when I started seeing there was less demand for practical effects in the film industry,” Romaire shares. “As I got involved, I realized theme parks and other live entertainment venues needed the level of expertise we had developed working with movie studios. Our work started with providing skins and sculptures used to support animatronics projects, but eventually expanded to include producing full characters and engineering their movements. Now, we do it all, taking projects from design to production and delivering extremely complex animated effects.”
While Romaire Studios does work for parks around the world, its latest contributions have involved major projects for Universal’s Epic Universe. The studio crafted 22 different animated props and characters for the new park, which involved spending over a year on research and development, followed by several years of design and fabrication. Non-disclosure agreements prevent Romaire from sharing key details about the work, but he says his studio’s work includes some of the most sophisticated animatronics in Epic Universe, the smallest animatronic in the park, and free-roaming animatronics that guests can interact with.
Lee Romaire is looking forward to a future of AI-driven special effects
The success of 2026’s “Sinners,” which is one of only a handful of horror films to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, suggests that the future of special effects will be closely tied to the advancement of artificial intelligence. Reports say AI played a big role in the visual effects leveraged to bring to life the creatures featured in “Sinners.”
Romaire sees AI as an interesting new player in the entertainment space that will serve as a helpful tool for developing creative content. When asked whether it will make human designers obsolete, Romaire says it depends on how they engage with it.
“Will the capabilities AI brings to the entertainment world wipe out traditional designers? Not if they take steps to understand it, learn how it works, and see it as a tool and not as an enemy,” Romaire says. “I’ve already used it in the work we are doing at our studio, and I find it fascinating.”
