Low budget horror is a popular starting point for many indie directors but a bottle of cheap ketchup just won’t cut it if your serial killer cannibals are eating their way through your cast. Try out these recipes for more realistic gore.

Corn Syrup Blood

This is the recipe that pretty much everyone uses, and there’s a lot of variations so feel free to experiment.

– 16 oz. White corn syrup (Karo syrup – this is a US product, but adding golden syrup does the job just as well, alternatively just mix sugar and water and reduce on the hob until it becomes syrupy)

– 1 oz. red food coloring

– 1 oz. washing detergent

– 1 oz. water

Add a drop of blue food colouring to create a more realistic colour. Remove the washing up liquid if you want to make edible blood. Adding condensed milk makes it less transparent and more like real blood.

The blood is extremely sticky and can stain skin and clothes so makes sure it’s washed off quickly and have stain remover handy for clothes!

Cardiff Red

Because of the food colouring used in a lot of blood recipes they tend to stain easily and can sometime look more purple than red. Here’s a more natural alternative that’s closer to a Spaghetti Western style arterial red. It also washes out of clothes easily and can be eaten reasonably safely if you were the kind of kid that used to eat paint and play dough!

Take a teaspoon or two of Arrowroot (a white powder used in baking that you can easily find in health food shops) and add to water heated on the hob. Stir continuously until the mixture becomes gloopy. Add a small amount of red children’s non-toxic powder paint and stir in. The mixture should now be bright red. Add a tiny amount of brown powder paint or coffee concentrate (make this by adding a small amount of water to coffee granules) to darken the blood as required. Store in a bottle or jam jar and thin by adding water to make the blood the required consistency as and when you need it. For bullet hits you need to thin the blood quite a bit to allow it to spray out.

Cheap Blood

Add a few drops of red food colouring to the cheapest washing up liquid you can find. Add a drop of blue colouring or some coffee concentrate to create a more realistic colour. Produces a runny blood that has a slight tendency to foam. Great for those buckets of blood effects on the cheap. Washes off reasonably well but tastes foul if you accidentally get it in your mouth.

Black and White Blood

Take a tip from the old school and use opaque chocolate syrup as used by Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho. Tastes delicious as well!

Jelly Blood

Microwave 3-4 bottles of glycerin then add one cube of strawberry jelly and mix until dissolved. Then add a small amount of gelatine (1/5 of a packet) and then add red food colouring to desired effect. Keep stirring until mixed well. It is slightly runny but great for that reservoir dogs look in back seat of the car. All ingredients are easily found in supermarkets.

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