Punningly named after a street in London, this is a name for fake blood, especially the sticky, edible sort in old British horror films.
Everything2
gives the recipe as:
2 cups of corn syrup (for viscosity and color)
1 cup of water (for balancing viscosity)
10 table spoons of maize flour (for making the blood less translucent)
10 tea spoons red food coloring (for color)
10 drops blue food coloring (for color)
A few drops concentrated mint (for taste - optional)
The blood is sticky, thick and bright red (crimson in fact). The original Kensington Gore was a specific brand of proprietary stage blood manufactured by a retired pharmacist John Tynegate in the 60's and 70's. It can be seen in a lot of old horror films, especially the
Hammer Horror series.
And this troper would like to add that there was a documentary on a while back which showed the use of chocolate syrup mixed with grenadine. Sounds yummy!
Examples:
- Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, especially the opening.
- Taste the Blood of Dracula, the sequel to the above.
- A Hard Days Night plays with this in a canteen scene: an actor uses ketchup first on his food and then on his "wound."
- This troper read that Alfred Hitchcock did Psycho in black and white, partly so he could use chocolate syrup swirling down the drain in the famous shower scene, instead of something that really looked like blood.
- Lampshaded in Looney Tunes: Back In Action, in which Bugs Bunny (spoofing the shower scene) is actually seen pouring chocolate syrup down the drain.
- If you happen to run into any of the non-Bruce Campbell actors from the original Evil Dead, do not mention fake blood, unless you're prepared for a Vietnam-like flashback; the amounts of fake blood used and the very, very sugary recipe (which Bruce Campbell actually gives and recommends in his autobiography) combined to leave every actor caked in unbearably sticky red mess at the end of every damn day of shooting. Also don't mention contact lenses, for mostly the same reason (those white things hurt like a bitch).
- Campbell mentions in one of his DVD commentaries that at one point instead of ripping, his shirt broke because it was so coated with the stuff.
- The Shining, anyone?
