When it comes to visualizing gore and violence on (and off)the screen, not much holds a candle to fake blood. Most recently, It ChapterTwo has made headlines for its blood use: at least 4,500 gallons of fakeblood was used to traumatize Jessica Chastain’s character, Beverly Marsh. For someperspective, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining used nearly 300 gallons for the famous elevator scene. However, Fede Alvarez, director of the 2013 EvilDead remake, claims to have ordered a truck with 50,000 gallons of blood…for just one scene.
A Bloody History
While we most often talk about fake blood as used in films,that’s not where the prop got its start. A famous Parisian theatre, the GrandGuignol, was known for its horror shows and terrifying performances. From itsopening in 1897 to its closing in 1962, bloody effects were at the climax ofthe popular horror plays.
The theatre had its own secret recipe for its stage blood, whichis believed to be a heated mixture of carmine pigment (derived from insects)and glycerol.
With the advent of film brought new challenges for thecreation of fake blood. Visually, a more realistic-looking color is preferred.However, for these black and white films, the more realistic stuff didn’tprovide the right contrast to look real on film. These early filmmakers found aworkaround in the form of a delicious confection: chocolate syrup.
Hershey’s chocolate syrup had the right viscosity to look andbehave like real blood and its dark color provided a nice contrast on film. AlfredHitchco*ck used chocolate syrup during the filming of Psycho because ithad the right consistency, especially for the shower scene. While this kind ofblood wasn’t a new concept, the plastic squeeze bottle was, and it helped makethe “blood” even easier to work with. George A. Romero’s 1968 classic, Night ofthe Living Dead, also used Chocolate Syrup (especially for corpse-eating).
Perfecting Fake Blood Recipes
When film moved away from black and white to color,filmmakers had new challenges to face: not only did the blood have to have theright consistency, now it had to have the right color, too. Early Technicolor horrorfilms, such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Horror of Dracula(1958) utilized blood splatter, but the blood was a very vibrant color andalmost cartoonish in its brightness.
As the first splatter film, Herschelle Gordon Lewis’ BloodFeast (1963) needed a lot of blood. And given the premise of the film, the fakeblood also needed to be safe for consumption. H.G. Lewis’ recipe for ediblefake blood was simple: red dye and Kaopectate (an antacid and anti-diarrheamedication originally made with kaolinite and pectate).
“Kensington Gore” was the trademarked name for blood used infilm and theatre during the 1960s and 1970s. Today, it is often used as ageneric term for stage blood. Kubrick specifically used Kensington Gore in TheShining.
Kensington Gore Recipe:
- Golden syrup
- Warm water
- Food coloring
- Corn starch (for adjusting opacity)
Kensington Gore really set the standard for fake blood madewith a sugary syrup base with food dye. But if we’re going to talk about fakeblood, we have to talk about Dick Smith because his DIY blood recipe, while technicallypoisonous, is one of the most famous.
Smith, known as the “Godfather of Makeup,” was an Americanspecial make-up effects artist best known for his work on famous films such as TheGodfather (1972), The Exorcist (1973), and Taxi Driver (1976).He put his own twist on the syrup-based blood with the addition ofmethylparaben, a preservative. He also used a photographic wetting agent thatchanged the viscosity of the “blood” and allowed it to seep into clothes, asreal blood would. However, this is also what makes the recipe poisonous,therefore making it unsuitable for any application where ingestion may occur.
Dick Smith’s Blood Recipe:
- 1 Quart white corn syrup
- 1 level Tsp methylparaben
- 2 Oz. Ehler red food color
- 5 Tsp Ehler yellow food color
- 2 Oz. Kodak Photo-Flo
- 2 Oz. water
Ehler red and yellow pigments are not available anymore, so somerecipes will add Zinc and use red and yellow food dye instead. To makethis recipe less poisonous, you can use a food-safe emulsifier/wetting agent suchas liquid lecithin instead of the Photo-Flo.
Another way to make a less toxic, edible blood is to go theSam Raimi method. For any low-budget filmmaker looking to make a horror movie,you likely need a lot of blood, and you probably need it to be very, very cheapand DIY-able. For the original Evil Dead (1981), they needed just that. Like DickSmith’s recipe, The Evil Dead blood relies on corn syrup as the base. Butto make affordable blood that still looked good on camera, Raimi and makeup andeffects artist Tom Sullivan used non-dairy coffee creamer in their recipe. Youcan find the recipe in Bruce Campbell’s autobiography If Chins Could Kill:Confessions of a B Movie Actor.
The Evil Dead Blood Recipe:
- 6 pints clear Karo syrup
- 3 pints red food coloring
- 1-pint non-dairy creamer
- 1 drop blue food coloring
Many movies and television series still rely on theserecipes (or some derivative) for their bloody visual effects. However, othersare turning to a cleaner method of gore: pixels. CGI blood is the go-to for directorswho want to keep things clean and have more control in post-production. Fameddirector David Fincher is well-known for preferring CGI blood effects over practicalones and can be seen in his most popular movies like Zodiac and FightClub. Whether or not CGI blood looks good or not is largely a matter of opinion.
Whether you’re hoping to make a low-budget film with plentyof gore, or simply want to amp up your Halloween party, we have many of theingredients you need to create your own very own buckets of blood. We offerRed, Yellow (no.5 andno.6), andBluefood-safe dye in bulk quantities as well ascorn starch andlecithin, depending on which recipe you follow.
