Horror movies featuring zombies and serial killers that ate brains or wore their victim’s flesh have terrified Americans for decades.

But now blood and guts have a new way of getting under our skin, thanks to a new exhibit in San Francisco.

San Francisco's Nob Hill Masonic Center features over 200 preserved human bodies and organs on display - from cancerous lungs to brains that suffered from strokes. They reveal the very real and intricate architecture of human anatomy at an exhibit called "The Universe Within: The Human Body Revealed."

"It's pretty crazy," said Michael Liebst, 26. "I'm glad I saw it. It will help me quit smoking (because) now I'm scared to die of cancer."

The public can see cadavers until June 3. The exhibit illustrates the blueprint of human anatomy firsthand, according to exhibit coordinator Steven Phillips.

Some bodies are cut right down to the bone or even straight through. Others are sliced in half or have the flesh peeled off of them like a banana, but they're all remarkably preserved if you are brave enough to see them.

This wasn't the case for one of Cedric Yap's sons. Yap brought both of his two sons to the exhibit. His youngest, age 10, hid behind his father at times, and at others spun around in circles in the middle of the exhibit as if there were nothing to fear.

Some SF State faculty say they believe the exhibit is nothing to fear as well. In fact, some are offering students extra credit just to see it.

Paula Moran, an instructor within SF State's kinesiology department, heard the exhibit was coming to San Francisco and said she was enthusiastic about encouraging her students to see it.

"It's unbelievable, especially for students involved with sports and other activities,” Moran said. “It’s amazing to see what the human body looks like without skin."

That is exactly what Professor Enhua Yu of Beijing University had hoped.

“The 'Universe Within' provides visitors the ability to explore the body parts that allow them to think, breathe and move as well as the ‘freeways’ that circulate the blood that keeps the motor in constant motion,” said Yu.

The exhibit is presented by the Chinese Society for Anatomical Sciences and the Museum of Life Sciences in Beijing. It is supported by Beijing University and the University of Vienna.

From the root-like structure of the veins that pump blood through our hearts and air into our lungs, the exhibit maps out everything that makes us who and what we are, thanks to plastination, a process that preserves the bodies. Liquid plastic replaces bodily fluids and is directly injected into the cells of specific parts of the body. Then the bodies are placed into a solvent until other parts of the body deteriorate.

Plastination makes it possible to see all of the blood-red veins of the cardiovascular system. This system of veins, arteries and capillaries is presented on its own, without a skeleton, in order for the public to fully perceive its complex structure inside the human body.

Before plastination, the only method for preserving human cadavers was by storing them in formaldehyde.

The colors of the veins and other parts of the body are sometimes painted, according to Coryn Mayerson, a medical student who was at the exhibit on its opening day. She was there to study the exhibit after the director offered her a job. She said a lot of art students and medical students come to see it.

For some, the exhibit might be too intense, but others may benefit from the in-depth look at their body. Mayerson discussed with Jessica Wu, her co-worker, some of the strange questions and things that have happened with the public at the exhibit. Wu said only once a couple asked for their money
back and a little boy left because he felt sick.

Kamal Harb, a health educator at SF State, said the exhibit is a great opportunity for students to learn about the human body.

"(It is) especially (great) to get an idea about anatomy and the function of the wonderful machine that we know as the human body," he said.