The Grapes of Death (1978)

Powerful

A lot of fun.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

You know I was going to try to be nice because the movie does have nice visuals (considering landscapes not in the make-up department because that was absolutely awful)and even though the nudity thrown in was quite gratuitous it was a welcome distraction for an otherwise dull experience. According to some the nudity however is quite few and tame for a Rollin film. I wouldn't know since I haven't seen other films from this director and I doubt I will after watching this. I'm not demanding that everything is explained but the actions of pretty much the whole cast including the female protagonist are either weird, questionable or stupid. In other words the director had no clear idea what he wanted to do, which direction he wanted to take this film. Also the happenings are quite repetitive, female protagonist getting helped by a female but that helping hand ends up dead with clothes ripped showing naked breasts. The killers are the village people mostly men infected by some pesticides as we find out in the end. It doesn't make them zombies even though they do walk just as slow but relentless killers. However why they do leave that blonde girl alone and why she acts as some kind of leader to them, not explained. But they do kill the poor blind girl half-nude nailed to the door with her brother beheading her and screaming he loves her. And all the heroine does is watch it and scream. Just like the dad killing his daughter after ripping her blouse open, it shows how the director wants to disturb rather than make an interesting film. Maybe the way the protagonist acted in the final scene wasn't so weird considering she and others been doing ridiculous things all film long. Still that was the final nail in the coffin for me to give it a bottom score.

I must admit that, unlike many of my fellow Eurohorror fanatics, I am not the biggest fan of Jean Rollin, but then, I am still far from being an expert on the man's work. Most of the Rollin films that I've seen so far reach from stylish but flawed (e.g. "Fascination") to stylish but boring (e. g. "La Rose De Fer") to plain ridiculous ("Le Lac Des Morts Vivants"). Therefore, I was very positively surprised when I recently saw "Les Raisins De La Mort" aka. "The Grapes of Death" (1977) a highly original, creepy, intelligent and overall very impressive Zombie/Gore film, which is by far my favorite of all the Rollin flicks I've seen. "Les Raisins De La Mort" is a Zombie film with a somewhat environmentalist premise: In a mountainous, wine-drinking area of France, pesticides that are meant as insect repellents for grapes, turn the population sick and murderously insane... Unlike your usual fully braindead zombies, the infected here are still (somewhat) capable of thinking, talking and having feelings, they just have the insatiable urge to murder... "Les Raisins De La Mort" has the reputation of being one of the first French gore films, and it is also a highly effective one. The cinematography and settings (beautiful French landscapes and villages) are extremely elegant, which is a quality that most Rollin films have. This one's intriguing premise and suspense is a quality that I would only attribute to this one (out of the bunch of Rollin films I've seen). Marie-Georges Pascal, who sadly committed suicide at age 39 in 1985, makes a likable protagonist as Élisabeth, a girl who gets lost in the land of the infested when trying to visit her fiancé, and Mirella Rancelot is memorable as a blind girl, a likable character whose stare into nonentity is both sympathy-evoking and slightly eerie. The film delivers what gore fans expect, the zombie-makeup (the infested begin to get moldy and rot away) is extremely disgusting, and the gore effects are bloody as hell and very well done. For a Rollin film, this one is very low on the sleaze and nudity, only the ravishing actress/pornstar Brigitte Lahaie (Rollin's favorite actress) gets naked in a supporting role. The score is pretty good and underlines the eerie atmosphere.Overall, this film delivers everything one might hope for in a Zombie film: a nice setting, suspense and creepiness, and loads of (both disturbing and disgusting) gore. Atmospheric, effective and definitely Rollin's best, in my opinion. Highly recommended!

Now here is a rarity. A movie I came across late at night on one of Sky's inferior movie channels (in this case zone horror) that I actually found quite enjoyable. If you are a fan of old school horror then I imagine you will enjoy this. Yes there are some ropey gore effects and some dodgy editing but overall there is a sense of menace which is greatly aided by the slow burning pace and genuinely spooky sound track. The basic premise of the film s that off a pesticide that has been sprayed on the grapes of a vineyard turn all those who consume the wine into some form of diseased zombie type. A young girl on the way to see her boyfriend at the vineyard has to deal with it. This is my first experience of French horror and of the movies of Jean Rollin and I have to say I will be seeking out more of both on this showing. You do have to take into account that this is a 1978 movie and it does show it's age but it has genuine fright moments and a real seedy scary under currant and a lot of modern horror directors could learn a thing or two about pacing a horror movie from here. A real unexpected treat. I would definitely watch this again and for fans of the genre give an extra mark.

~Spoiler~When it comes to Euro-horror, there are two types of fans. Those who get Jean Rollin and Jess Franco, and those who don't. Well...I DON'T! I have seen enough of both to know they aren't for me. Jean Rollin's The Grapes of Death is no exception. I rented this based on the fact it was the only movie to receive a high level of praise from Jamie Russell's Book of the Dead that I hadn't seen. Maybe I missed something because this seemed worthy of no more than a blurb in the back of the book. The film is set in the French countryside where wine is turning the people into crazed "zombies" and one girl has to fight her way through to reach her lover. It's no more than a retread of ground Romero already covered in The Crazies (and covered much better I might add). Like The Crazies, the villagers in Grapes are not really zombies. They're just crazy people with purple lesions. I found the movie to be very droll and completely without action. But, judging from the high level of acclaim, those other horror fans I was talking about earlier...you know, the ones who like Rollin...apparently love this film. So, decide which type of fan you are before seeing The Grapes of Death, or any other Rollin movie for that matter.