Blood in the Movies

Let's say you're making a movie and you need to show blood. What do you use? Maybe some ketchup?

For one of the most famous movie scenes that involve blood -- that'd be Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho -- Bosco chocolate syrup was used. (Hitchcock also filmed the movie in black and white, so it didn't matter that the "blood" wasn't red.)

Assuming you're not doing some sci-fi film where your dying alien happens to have chocolate for blood... what do you do if in fact you do need red blood?

Well, here's a recipe is from the Entertainment Weekly Guide to the Greatest Movies Ever Made (1994 edition)...

Recipe for Blood

-1 bottle of light corn syrup
-generous amount of red food coloring
-smaller amount of yellow food coloring
-1 dash of green and blue food coloring
-optional: heaping spoonful of titanium oxide (powder found in toothpaste); pinch of methyl-Paraben (a preservative)

(Now, here comes the best part of the recipe. The directions...)

Mix until bloody.

P.S. Of course, in a pinch, you can always use ketchup... Yum!