Les raisins de la mort

I saw this for the first time recently. The film's gore may remind viewers of Fulci. The settings may remind of Who Can kill a Child and Tombs of the blind Dead. The film has lingering shots of oozing stuff n nasty ulcers, it has nudity, a decapitation n hell lottuva weirdness. Dont worry about the oozing ulcers, we have porn actress Brigitte Lahaie, who doesnt hesitate to undress. In one scene a woman is shown wearing a red shirt n the next she is shown wearing a braless gown. The best part about this film is Jean Rollin's exquisite cinematography and surrealistic atmosphere throughout.

This neglected cult classic is finally available for the first time in the States, on DVD with a gorgeous looking (and sounding) transfer by Synapse Films. It looks great - probably better than it did in the theatres. Not exactly a zombie flick, but that is the closest genre you could categorize it. It follows the trials of Elizabeth, a young woman traveling by rail across the French countryside, en route to meet with her fiancé, who runs a winery. Before she reaches her destination however, she encounters a homicidal man who has just murdered her traveling companion, and whose face disintegrates before her horrified eyes as he chases her off the train. Lost in the rural expanse, the woman encounters various peasants who seem to have become trapped between life and death, driven mad by the pain of decaying alive, and more than eager to throttle her and visit various abuses upon her body (implied by the fact that any uninfected individual she comes across in her adventure inevitably takes the proverbial bullet for her - by pitchfork, hatchet, or whatever lethal tool the living `dead' have at hand at the moment). Finally, it is revealed that her fiancé has been pumping out wine tainted by pesticides, which has been consumed en masse earlier at a festival by the unfortunate villagers (talk about becoming dead drunk.). This is easily one of Rollin's most accessible films, but may not be to the tastes of anyone weaned on Empty-Vee styled horror flicks. But for the discriminating palate, this is definitely recommended -- leisurely paced, atmospheric, and with liberal dollops of gore and mayhem to boot, this is late 70's horror at its best.

Jean Rollin's "Grapes of Death" is a refreshing living dead poem, and an effective low key horror film from France's gentleman auteur.

After Elizabeth (Marie-Georges Pascal) encounters a rotting man and the corpse of her traveling companion on a deserted train, she flees into the countryside where she must battle a plague of the sad, tortured dead. The "grapes" of the title relate to the cause of the spreading problem.

Rollin's films have always found horror and dread in rural landscapes and crumbling architecture; in "Grapes" the fascination with these elements continues and is intensified by suitably evocative photography. Despite some ropey focus and action sequences that don't quite cut smoothly, this is the director's most technically polished work and an important addition to French "cinefantastique".

Although the plot line bears some similarity to Romero's "The Crazies" and the visuals pre-date the recent dead-on-arrival French "Revenants" (see review), Rollin does not run this show along traditional genre lines. Instead, he has the heroine Pascal encountering a blind woman who is oblivious to the contagion and a recluse (Brigitte Lahaie) who may be her savior in a white nightie. Elizabeth's final reunion with her boyfriend has a sad, tragic quality that becomes, like the rest of the film, quite surreal.

There is sporadic gore and the violence is shockingly sudden in parts, but Rollin's trademark dream-like pacing and social commentary are there to be enjoyed and appreciated.

A bleak gallic version of 'Night of the Living Dead', except that this time the victims remain horribly sentient and resemble lepers rather than zombies.

The makers probably had the outbreak of mass psychosis at Point-Saint-Esprit in 1951 in mind (which was caused by ergot in the local bread rather than pesticide in the local wine as depicted here).

THE GRAPES OF DEATH is Director Jean Rollin's gory, gushy chemical-zombie movie. Far more grim and gruesome than most Rollin offerings, there's less nudity as well. There are no real instances of surrealism or metaphysical irony here. This is a straight horror film. The title comes in, since the trouble starts in a vineyard where pesticides turn a man into a murdering monster who attacks a passenger train. A female survivor finds herself at the very same vineyard. More terror ensues. One of Rollin's best efforts, complete with some actual chills. Great, bloody fun for the fear freak!...