This Spooky Change Is Coming To Heinz Ketchup Bottles

Alfred Hitchcock famously used Bosco Chocolate Syrup as blood in the "Psycho" shower scene (via The Atlantic). But that horror classic was shot in black and white. These days, unless you're on a tight budget like Kevin Smith with "Clerks," or you're trying to evoke old cinema as in 2020's "Mank" (via No Film School), you're probably filming in color. Not to mention "in real life," where that chocolate syrup poured all over a "Carrie"-style prom dress is going to look frighteningly disgusting, but it's not going to look like blood.

That's why DIY fake blood recipes often include red food dye, beet or pomegranate juice, or red Kool-Aid (via Good Housekeeping). YouTube even has a super-easy recipe for fake blood made with that old Halloween go-to, ketchup. It works well because it's not too runny to stand in as blood; in fact, it needs a little water to give it the right consistency. If ketchup has a drawback, it's that all the fake blood on your Halloween costume will smell like ketchup. But never mind that. Heinz is going all-in with limited-edition bottles of Tomato Blood tomato ketchup that are intended to be used as a Halloween accessory. In fact, the brand is promoting the product with the slogan, "If you have Heinz, you have a costume." You'll find Tomato Blood featured on a special, seasonal website, HeinzHalloween.com.

Food & Wine assures us that Heinz Tomato Blood is simply the food brand's regular ketchup, dressed up in a scary label. But on its website HeinzHalloween.com, Heinz really does want you to squirt Tomato Blood all over your Halloween costume. The company is even encouraging people to post the results on social media with the #HeinzHalloween hashtag. In case you don't want to squirt ketchup all over your own bedsheet or T-shirt, Heinz is selling some pristine-looking white costumes on the side: a pirate costume, the mummy, the mad scientist, and the irresistible corpse bride costume.

Tomato Blood is getting a wider distribution this year after its introduction in 2020, when Heinz was aiming to give families something fun and different during a Halloween disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic (via Business Wire). Last year, Heinz gave away a mere 570 bottles of Tomato Blood through a TikTok challenge. This year, if you simply must purchase Tomato Blood, you should be able to get your disembodied hands on it at HeinzHalloween.com.