The Grapes of Death (1978) Les raisins de la mort (original title)

Director:

Jean Rollin

Writers:

Jean-Pierre Bouyxou (story)
Jean Rollin (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

5 July 1978 (France)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

When the wine flows, the terror begins ...

Plot:

A young woman discovers that the pesticide being sprayed on vineyards is turning people into killer zombies. |

Plot Keywords:

Vineyard | Pesticide | Insane | Grape | Shotgun

Cast

Marie-Georges Pascal	...	Élisabeth (as Marie George Pascal)
Félix Marten	...	Paul (as Felix Marten)
Serge Marquand	...	Lucien
Mirella Rancelot	...	Lucie
Patrice Valota
Patricia Cartier
Michel Herval
Brigitte Lahaie	...	La grande femme blonde (as Brigitte Lahaye)
Paul Bisciglia	...	Lucas
Olivier Rollin
François Pascal
Evelyne Thomas
Jean-Pierre Bouyxou
Jean Rollin
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Guillaume Le Vacher	...	Young living dead (uncredited)
Raphaël Marongiu	...	Dead man in the press (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean Rollin

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean-Pierre Bouyxou		story
Christian Meunier		screenplay
Jean Rollin		screenplay
Jean Rollin		story

Produced by
Jean-Marie Ghanassia	....	associate producer (as Jean-Marc Ghanassia)
Claude Guedj	....	producer
Christian Ruh	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Philippe Sissman

Cinematography by
Claude Bécognée

Film Editing by
Dominique Saint-Cyr
Christian Stoianovich

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jean-Pierre Bouyxou	....	first assistant director
Christian Meunier	....	second assistant director

Sound Department
Henri Humbert	....	sound effects
Claude Panier	....	sound mixer

Special Effects by
Yannick Josse	....	special effects
Raphaël Marongiu	....	special effects
Alfredo Tiberi	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Charles Jobert	....	assistant camera
Etienne Jourdan	....	electrician

Editorial Department
Noël Guillot	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Lionel Bernier	....	production department
Olivier Rollin	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Films A.B.C.
• Off Production
• Rush Productions

Distributors

• Another World Entertainment (2009) (Denmark) (DVD)
• Cinéthèque (????) (France) (VHS)
• Filmfreak Distributie (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Redemption Films (2004) (UK) (DVD)
• Synapse Films (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Video Search of Miami (2009) (USA) (DVD) (subtitled)

Other Companies

• Avia Films  sound re-recording

Also Known As:

"Les raisins de la mort" - France (original title)
"The Raisins of Death" - International (English title)

Runtime:

Germany:85 min | USA:90 min (uncut version)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:16 (2009) (DVD) | West Germany:(Banned) | West Germany:18 (nf) (cut version) | France:-16 | UK:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

Films A.B.C.

Trivia:

The filming locations had extremely cold temperatures and often the makeup effects would start to freeze on the actors, making it difficult for them appear realistic on camera.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: During the long zoom in the scene where Élisabeth meets the blind girl at the deserted valley, a man can be seen walking in the distance.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Eurotika!: Vampires and Virgins: The Films of Jean Rollin (#1.1)" (1999)

Rollin unearths fresh rural dread in surreal zombie poem

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.