Never let it be said that the marketing team behind the Saw movies didn’t know how to draw the last drop of blood out of promoting their movies. But now they’re taking that last sentence just a little too literally.
Because the red colour used for Jigsaw’s cloak in the latest Saw III poster is not just red ink, oh no. It’s mixed with blood from the man himself – AKA actor Tobin Bell. "We decided to do a poster and he's wearing a red cloak. I was talking to the printer and asked what we could do to get the deepest blood red. I asked if it would be possible to use actual blood. There was silence. He said, 'We could try, but are you serious?' I said I was dead serious," Lionsgate marketing chief Tim Palen told Variety.
According to Palen, Bell was also a little bit nervous about the idea, but agreed and headed to the doctor to have the blood drawn. With the thumbs up from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, an LA based printing company supplied several workers with gloves and masks and set them to work printing up the plasma-inked promos. "It's something we've never done before. Quite frankly, everyone in my shop loved doing it," Insync Media president Harold Huttas explained to the trade mag. "Tim always goes for the creative, and he gets a little farther out there each time."
The film company will sell regular posters for $20, though they’re auctioning off the original print for charity. Expect other films to follow this trend. Rob Schneider’s next poster will be covered in human excrement. That’s not the printing, just the likely audience reaction.