ProLost has posted a video tutorial on making wire pull blood squibs indie-style. Simple, cheap, and very effective. There is also a thread on the Rebel’s Guide forum with a detailed realistic blood recipe.


5 Responses to “How to Make Fake Blood and a Wire-Pull Squib”  

  1. 1 chris

    first get a strong cardboard surface cut one about the size of an index card, and tape it under your shrit on your body or where ever you want to get shot,then buy one of those cheap firecrackers (the best time to buy those is around july in practicly any store) then tape the fire cracker on to the piece of card board on your body,so when the cracker goes off it wont burn your body, now for the blood packet, get one of those small,small ziploc bags then fill it with red dye (1.00 a box at grocery stores) close the bag then tape it on top of the firecacker and card board. now all you have to do is light it . oh and make sure that the fire cracker fuse pokes out of the shirt ‘just make a litte hole and poke it out then light it because my frind lit it under his shrit and the little sparks burnt him .+ the hole makes a better impression of a gunshot wound w/ the little “bullethole” cut on your shirt. then when its out of the hole light it and BANG! you have your self a bloody gun shot wound.

  2. 2 Mike

    We make them a little differently, first, we take a small piece of aluminum sheet cut it to size and form it to the part of the body where it is needed. then we take a firecracker and pull out the fuse. then we insert an electric match into the fire cracker and tape it to the metal. Then, we use small plastic or wax paper bags and fill them with blood and tape it over the fire cracker, and attach the electric match to the remote igniter and tape the squib and blood pack to the part of the body. For multiple squibs, you can wire them in series or use multiple igniters. A squib does not necessarily require a blood pack, they look great without blood for bulletproof vests, in structures or vehicles, etc. also, it is important to remember that squibs are inherently not safe, there are many other alternatives using compressed air, non explosive squibs, i’ve even seen some convincing effects using paintballs compressed air can be used in conjunction with squibs to create some real cool effects.

  3. 3 Beau

    can you put up a shopping list of where i can get everything needed for the second method

  4. 4 W.H.

    for my movies, I use a mixture that you can find at Wal-Mart, Giant Eagle, Piggly Wiggly, whatever general grocery store is in your area. Around halloween time at wal-mart, you can find the “Bottle of Blood” which is pre-made fake blood for sick movie creators. I use this…
    … You will need…
    1. A mixing bowl
    2. A turkey baster (for splatter effects)
    3. Karo Corn syrup, or light corn syrup (Karo is best)
    4. Red food coloring
    5. Chocolate syrup (for better taste, and darkness)
    6. Water (if you can’t find this, then don’t bother)
    7. A sports water bottle

    Mix the both syrups together in the bowl, then add the food coloring. Keep mixing until it looks thick and dark crimson red. then add water. continue to mix until it is thicker than water, but thinner than the syrup. if you want splatter effects on walls, extract the blood from the bowl with the turkey baster. if not, pour the blood into the water bottle carefully for easy transportation and accessibility. Now your ready to make an action/horror/dark comedy/ or any movie for than matter.

  5. 5 Sidlia Films

    I’ve just produced a teaser trailer for an upcoming British film http://www.killerweedthemovie.com. We tried out loads of fake blood recipies and found most to be disappointing, maybe because many of the American ingredients suggested were not available in England. We wanted a dark red, almost black tinted blood that looked red when lit, but blackish and evil when not, but kept ending up with thin, pinkish bloods. However, by substituting ingredients and combining recipies we produced two fantastic fake bloods: one thick-but-still-runny one for the splatters and spraying; and one extremely thick, clotted looking one for the prosthetics. The clotted one looked particularly gruesome and can be combined with the runny one. Here they are:

    THICK BUT RUNNY BLOOD - deep red with a slight black/purple hue, looks like artery blood. Holds its shape when splattered:

    5 dessert spoons of golden syrup (tesco value - aprox 60p per jar)
    Half a 15ml bottle of red food colouring (aprox 20p per 15ml bottle)
    1/2 dessert spoon of milk (can be added last just before filming if you want to make the mixture in advance)
    1/2 dessert spoon of water

    Combine the above in a mixing bowl. Remove a spoonful of the mixture into a separate small bowl. Add a drop of blue and green food colouring (aprox 20p per 15ml bottle) to the separated mixture. Don’t add the green and blue colouring straight to the main mixture (unless you are making a huge vat of it), as it comes out too fast and is much stronger than the red colouring, so your mixture will turn black. Add spoonfuls of the separated mixture to the main mixture until the main mixture is dark enough and has lost that translucent pinkish tone. If you want it thicker, add up to 3 dessert spoons more of the golden syrup.

    CLOTTED BLOOD - great on prosthetics, or can be mixed in with the runny blood for extremely realistic looking clotting blood:

    You will need:
    Cocoa Powder (not drinking chocolate powder - aprox £1.30 per pot from Tesco)
    Corn Flour (about £1.20 per bag)
    Water
    Golden Syrup
    Red Food Colouring
    Green Food colouring
    Blue Food colouring

    Heat a kettle of water until just below boiling. Put one heaped dessert spoonful of Cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. Add half a mug of almost-boiled water, mix until cocoa powder has dissolved.
    Add four tablespoons of Golden syrup to the cocoa mixture. Then one teaspoonful of red food colouring, and one drop of green food colouring. This gives you the “Chocolate blood” that is on many websites, but that we found too runny and brown. Stand this mixture aside.

    Put 6 heaped teaspoons of Corn Flour into another bowl. Add one mug of warm water from the kettle. Stir until cornflour is dissolved (scrape the bottom of the bowl).
    Fill a saucepan with two mugfuls of water and heat until just below boiling. Add the cornflour mixture to the saucepan. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Then add four tablespoons of milk. Simmer for a further two minutes.
    Take the chocolate mixture that you had set aside, and add 24 tablespoons of it to the saucepan. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
    Add one 15ml bottle of red food colouring. Mix in, then leave the mixture to cool.

    If it hasn’t already gone thick while being simmered you’ve probably had the heat up too high, but don’t panic as when it cools it will set and you can whisk it to create the lumps.

    Enjoy!

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