Shambling zombies, undead zombies, infected zombies... who knew cinema’s favourite blood-soaked baddies had so many sides?

Mike Peel, that’s who. The boss of Rogue Creations SFX, based in Aylesbury, has worked on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Casino Royale, V for Vendetta and The Descent but is best known for his work on horror films.

The special effects expert says he is usually the first one in and last one out of the filmset and when an effect goes wrong all eyes are on him, but all the gore and blood makes up for it!

“You have to reasearch dead bodies to make it look realistic but you kind of switch off after a while because it’s your job.

“But every now and then you do see something that makes you think ‘my goodness’.

“Sometimes you only get four lines of script and have to create an effect that takes seven weeks of work and you test it and test it in the workshop but then on set something goes wrong and you have to think on your feet.”

He will be giving demonstrations of vampire and zombie makeup on Saturday, May 3 from 11am to 4pm at St Albans Town Hall and says: “It’s not something that people see being done every day so it will be nice to have a bit of audience interaction.”