Some genre films are so effective you have to watch them between your fingers. Steven Ellison's first film Kuso was so effective it caused massive walkouts at Sundance. Grammy-nominated director details the genesis of his penchant for the perverse and his favorite gross-out moments in cinema. SFX expert Jim Ojala passes down his family recipe for accurate onscreen ralphing. Plus, we get up close with a real, honest-to-god freak show about why we can't look away!

Simon Barrett (writer of You're Next, The Guest, Blair Witch) talks tension and what's so great about a blender... as an instrument of death. Plus, a criminologist makes Mickey fear his family.

The Soska Sisters show how they achieve their films' practical body horrors without CG. Plus, Jim Ojala has the tools to remove your tool, and a body mod expert gets into the art of eyeball tattoos

Wanna hear from an American master? Good. We've got iconic director Mary Harron to talk holding audiences in the palm of her hand. Plus, a mentalist shows how to execute a psyche out.

Leigh Whannell (Saw, Insidious) created not one but two massive horror franchises that radically shifted the direction of the genre. The reigning king of delicious, masterful, utterly surprising jump scares tells us how to get audiences involuntarily elevated out of their chairs. Hold on to that popcorn! Plus, we'll push the boundaries of haunted houses with an examination of the extreme, surreal vision of H E R E T I C.

Obsessive paranoiacs dissecting hidden messages that may not be there. Hallucinatory demons literally freezing you to your bed. Acclaimed director Rodney Ascher (Room 237, The Nightmare) tackles these subjects in a gripping blend of documentary and horror, and as he explains to Mickey, it all started with his childhood traumas. Plus, a sleep specialist analyzes the science of sleep paralysis. Are those monsters pure chemistry, or something more?

To work through evil, sometimes you need to see evil on screen. Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah, and Josh C. Waller explain how their acclaimed company SpectreVision makes genre films that provide cathartic, heartfelt examinations of the human soul -- in addition to visceral thrills. Then, a revolutionary doctor shows us how she treats her patients' phobias using cutting edge virtual reality technology. Can horrific images literally cure you?

THE CORE pays tribute to two titans of genre who passed in 2017, Tobe Hooper and George A. Romero. Mickey and actor/comedian/podcaster Henry Zebrowski break down the directors' unparalleled contributions to film, while avoiding some zombies and chainsaw killers themselves. Then, we hear fascinating firsthand tales from Ken Foree, star of Dawn Of The Dead, Daniel Pearl, cinematographer of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Gabriel Bartalos, FX crew of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

It's all Horror Business on THE CORE, with The Godfather of American Punk, Glenn Danzig who guides us through the darkest parts of human nature, the films that have influenced him, and the juiciest bloodbaths in cinematic history.