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 The Grapes of Death More at IMDbPro »Les raisins de la mort (original title)

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14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
One of Jean Rollin's Best!, 29 January 2002
8/10
Author: Craig Blamer (blamer@prodigy.net) from Chico, CA

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.

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Claustrophobia/Isolation of the countryside, 14 March 1999
Author: damularc from Youngstown, Ohio

Rollin's "big" budget films rewards the viewer tremendously. Raisins de la Morte has been called the first French gore film, yet it is worth seeing for more than its few baser thrills. The whole movie is like a particularly convincing claustrophobic dream. Novice explorers of the European horror film or general fans of the zombie genre should be captured by the compact story of the lost girl in the near ancient village of zombies created by an uncannily debilitating batch of wine. Rollin's skill at creating the feel of a bad dream, however, is shown in the opening train scene. An extremely effective tracking shot of a nearly empty train car sets the tone of isolation and danger perfectly.

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10 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Definitely Rollin's best, but not necessarily that good., 25 January 2008
4/10
Author: innocuous from Raleigh, NC, USA

This film is watchable, but it is hit-and-miss in several respects. The atmosphere and story are not too bad, and the gore is a bit amateurish but plentiful. My major objection to the film is the poor editing. If you are ever asked about the importance of editing and continuity to the watchability of a film, just point to this film as an example of how NOT to do it. Due to the poor editing and lack of continuity, people "jump" all over the screen and sets, showing up in one place after starting in another. One of the actresses literally walks around a corner of a building and changes clothes completely at the same time. (No, I don't believe that this was intentional.) A couple huge dogs just show up at one point (which also makes no sense), wounds change locations, and some events were obviously intended to precede other events that now appear earlier in the film.

Don't get me wrong, this film is worth your time if you're a fan, but it is definitely not a slick, finished product.

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Rollin unearths fresh rural dread in surreal zombie poem, 13 November 2005
7/10
Author: fertilecelluloid from Mountains of Madness

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.

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8 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Surprisingly good French zombie flick!, 31 March 2006
8/10
Author: The_Void from Beverley Hills, England

French director Jean Rollin is best known for his messy erotic vampire films, but Zombie Lake aside; he's actually a lot better at zombie films. Along with The Living Dead Girl, The Grapes of Death represents one of the few successes for the cult director. This zombie film stands out for its morbid and surreal atmosphere, and for the fact that, as zombie films go, this one is quite original. The title doesn't suggest a good film, but it refers to the movie's main plot point; namely, the fact that it's the French tradition of distilling wine that is to blame for the zombie outbreak. It's points like this that make the film profoundly French and despite the fact that France doesn't seem like the ideal country for a zombie outbreak; the plot and location blend together rather nicely. Naturally, the main character is female; and we follow her as she makes her way to her home town of Roubles; a wine producing estate. The journey turns awry when a man infected with the zombie virus boards the train, and our heroine finds her travel companion dead...and that's just the start of it!

The plot takes the familiar Night of the Living Dead style idea of the living trying to stay clear of the dead, but Rollin makes the film his own with a fine variety of weird and wonderful characters, and it usually turns out that these are more dangerous than the zombie hoards. The rural setting provides a nice base for a zombie movie, as it's quite different from the usual urban setting, and this also blends well with Rollin's morbid atmosphere. The film is also very surreal, and the director continually gives the viewer the impression that there's something nasty lurking just around the corner. Many of Rollin's films feel cheap and nasty, but this one doesn't; the cinematography is beautiful, and the acting isn't too bad either; both of which give the film a higher quality feel than the plot, by rights, should have. The only time there's a lapse in quality is the awful commentary on French politics towards the end…but it's not enough to spoil it entirely. The film is quite erotic, and even though it's quite different to his usual stuff; you can still tell that it's Rollin in the director's chair. The ending is really good, and comes as quite a surprise; and I've got to say that I loved the final message; I agree, beer is superior to wine. Recommended!

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Creepy and Original 'Environmentalist' Zombie Gore Film by Jean Rollin, 6 May 2010
8/10
Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria

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!

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6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
The best film Rollin ever did !, 27 May 2003
7/10
Author: macabro357 from U.S.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

(aka: THE GRAPES OF DEATH)

And I've seen just about all of his films too, so if you're looking for John Carpenter or Jason or Freddie or any other American horror schlock, you better look somewhere else. This film takes it's time in the usual French way.

Hey this one's got good gore effects!! I like the realistic sores with puss oozing out of them. The cool scene of the puss oozing out of the guy's face on the train was really well done.

I also like the pitchfork scene where the farmer forks his daughter in an apparent fit of pesticide-induced madness. Not bad at all.

Another good scene is when the blind girl Lucy is crucified on the back door of a farmhouse and her provider comes out and chops her head off with an ax, blood spraying out everywhere...

Then the gorgeous Bridgette Lahaie appears, looking normal but really isn't. We get a nice full-frontal scene of her nude, too.

It has one of those typical 1970s-style ambiguous endings where no one really wins, good or bad, so you'll have to see it for yourself.

Excellent Synapse DVD with extras such as an interview with Rollin and Lahaie, who still looks gorgeous after 25 years. She hasn't really aged at all.

Plus there's an excellent slide-show of all the gore scenes up close.

Too bad the first reviewer below didn't wait a couple of years for this DVD to come out

7 out of 10 for keeping me amused.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
A winner, but lacking cohesion and tension - surreal., 1 June 2003
Author: jester-30 from United States

Fans of Jean Rollin will not be disappointed. This film capitalizes on many of the staples that make his films unique. There is a pretty gal traveling all over the French countryside facing peril, atmospheric and lingering cinematography, a quirky soundtrack, breasts, a tragic love story, and plenty of surprises to keep viewers guessing. Add the special appearance by the lovely Brigitte Lahaie and you've got a winner, but certainly lacking the cohesion (though wildly subversive and surreal -- though not so bizarre as Jess Franco's pictures) and tension of some of his more successful ventures like La Morte Vivante (The Living Dead Girl), Requiem for a Vampire, The Shiver of the Vampires and others.

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5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
"My brains rotting up." Dull French horror film., 31 December 2005
5/10
Author: Paul Andrews (poolandrews@hotmail.com) from UK

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Les Raisins de la Mort, or The Grapes of Death as it's more commonly known to English speaking audiences, starts on a French vineyard called Roubles. One of the workers named Kowalski complains about feeling ill... Elizabeth (Marie-Georges Pascal) & her friend Brigitte are travelling across France on a train when it stops at a station & Kowalski gets on, he appears to have some sort of disease. He kills Brigitte & attacks Elizabeth who stops the train & flees in terror into the French countryside. Elizabeth comes across a house where she ask's for help, unfortunately the occupants are also infected with the sickness & it quickly becomes apparent that the mysterious infection has spread throughout the French countryside & Elizabeth must fight off the hordes of crazed villagers & find safety...

This French production was co-written & directed by Jean Rollin & if you don't like his style of film-making then Les Raisins de la Mort will do little to change your opinion, it certainly hasn't changed mine. The script by Rollin & Christian Meunier seems to have been heavily influenced by Goerge A. Romeros The Crazies (1973), in fact they have much in common. It is also very slow, dull & frankly boring. It has a decent central premise that had potential but the film is just lethargic & the infected villagers themselves totally disappear for the final twenty odd minutes & they are just really slow. The story, character's or situations just didn't grip or engage me & I found myself becoming more & more disinterested in what was, or in the case of Les Raisins de la Mort, what wasn't happening.

Director Rollin as usual spends more time on the visual look of the film rather than the story. There is hardly any dialogue which is expected & he likes to let his images to do the talking. Les Raisins de la Mort has a nice visual look, the bleak stark French countryside with it stone house village's makes for a nice isolated location although it does become monotonous eventually. Contray to what you may have heard the gore is quite tame & the special make-up effects are generally poor as the infected villager's look like they have bits of pizza stuck on their faces. There is one gory moment when someone has their head cut off with an axe, other than that there is a poor looking slit throat, someone is stabbed with a pitchfork & a few splashes of blood, that's it. For a Rollin film the nudity is surprisingly low with just two instances.

Technically the film is OK, it looks nice enough but the effects are a bit dodgy looking. I can't comment on the acting as the dialogue is spoken in French, so don't watch it if you don't like reading subtitles as I don't think an English dub version exists.

Les Raisins de la Mort was disappointing as far as I'm concerned, I'd have preferred a zombie film with intestine eating & blood drinking rather than the infected villager's type thing we ended up with. I found it boring, dull & went nowhere. Even Rollins usual visual dream like surreal style seems to be absent. Average at best, not worth making any real effort to watch.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Nice, Blood and Wine, 26 May 2008
7/10
Author: ed_two_o_nine from United Kingdom

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.

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