Blood and Guts Are Everywhere On Scott Ian’s New Nerdist Series

“WARNING,” reads a disclaimer before the start of Fangoria’s Blood and Guts, “The following contains adult language and graphic, bloody, awesome fake violence.” After appearing for a few seconds, the warning disappears as a screen wipe composed of red viscera transitions to the opening scene. It would be hard for me to come up with a more accurate and honest summary of the show, which premiered this Wednesday over at Nerdist.

Quite simply, Blood and Guts is a 10-minute gorefest where host Scott Ian checks out some of the leading names in the FX industry, with a special focus on horror movies (sponsor Fangoria is a magazine about horror, slasher, and gore films). The first episode features Greg Nicotero, the special effects guru who counts The Walking Dead among his many, many credits. Nicotero’s been a busy man of late, creating a web companion for The Walking Dead, so his appearance in Blood And Guts‘ inaugural episode also acts as a behind-the-scenes look at Cold Storage.

Ian is most famous as the frontman of the band Anthrax, one of the seminal groups in the thrash metal genre; he also had plenty of appearances on I Love the 90s. With his clean shaven

head and monstrously large and bushy goatee, Ian himself looks a little bit like a horror movie model, and he’s got a clear passion about the subject. He walks around Nicotero’s studio like a kid in a candy shop, gawking at the models that defined many classic characters. “I was stoked,” said Ian of the opportunity Nerdist presented him, “because I am a big horror fan and I love all this kind of stuff like special makeup effects. It’s a good fit for me.” Horror movie fans will recognize models from Alien, Predator, and George Romero’s Creepshow, along with many other films that I am not knowledgeable enough to recognize.

Even if you’re not a film buff, Blood and Guts has plenty of treats to keep you engaged, particularly toward the end of the show, when Nicotero prepares three zombie heads for Ian to mutilate by various means. He bludgeons the first, stabs the second, and runs over the third with his car, sending fake blood flying all over the studio (and Ian’s own face). This is truly the core of Blood and Guts: if you’re at home watching red corn syrup fly across a room, you’re going to have a good time.