How to Make Cinema-Ready Entrails

Here’s one for all you people out there attempting to shoot a zombie movie right now (or whenever actually). It’s a tutorial and story written by the puppeteer and writer Mary Robinette Kowal and now proudly featured here for your convenience.

To make your Oscar-winning entrails just follow the steps outlined below from the shopping list to have them dry in your shower.

By the way: Condoms are also the ideal instrument for a cheap bloodshed effect. As a matter of fact many Indian movie makers use them for action films. The condoms just need to be hidden from the viewer, filled with crimson-pigmented liquid and are then ready to be stabbed.

Here you go:

1 – Shopping List

To make entrails takes very few supplies. Your shopping list looks like this.

• Unlubricated condoms
• KY Jelly
• Food coloring
• Press and Seal wrap
• Fake blood

2 – Filling the Condoms

Start by filling the condoms with KY Jelly. You’ll need about one tube of KY per condom. Add a little bit of food coloring, but don’t worry about mixing it evenly. I use 1 drop green to 3 drops red, personally. Tie each condom off making a whole bunch of individual of links.

Note: The KY usually makes really impressive farting noises.

3 – The Detritus

I had a student helping me make these and she took some of the supplies home to finish up. Her boyfriend came in while the room looked like this.

I think he was sad that he hadn’t been invited over earlier.

And you should see the people at the checkout line when you buy 20 boxes of KY jelly. It’s a fun job.

4 – On the Wrap

Lay the condoms out on the Press and Seal. Normally, I don’t get specific about a brand, but this stuff is great for intestines. Because it’s self sticking, it adheres well to itself. The slight pebbly texture and the translucents can pass as viscera.

Notice how the condoms are all different colors. That helps create the illusion of food passing through.

5 – Deckle the Edge

Deckle the edges of wrap so that you eliminate a crisp line. Straight edges almost never occur in nature and certainly not in the human body. Making the edge uneven also means that you’ll have varying degrees of overlap on the wrap so the opacity will vary.

6 – Finishing Up

Dip the entrails into stage blood, most of which has the lovely property of looking wet even when it’s dry. Do test this and be aware that humidity will slow the drying down and make them sticky. Once they’ve dried, they’ll look wet and freshly extracted but without all that messy residue.

If you leave them drying in the shower, as I did, I highly recommend that you leave a note so that no one is startled upon finding them.

Thanks and via Mary.