Haunted Projector

Jean Rollin’s 1978 film “The Grapes of Death” is one of the French directors most well known films. It concerns a French vineyard town where the population is turned into zombies after consuming wine made with grapes that were sprayed with experimental pesticides. We follow a woman who after being attacked on a train by one of the zombies, attempts to get to safety. The plot is simple, but there’s enough of Rollin’s signature imagery and twists on horror to keep things interesting the entire runtime.

Although it’s considered a zombie film, “The Grapes of Death” like Rollins’ vampire pictures gives the creatures their own twist, in which the zombies almost drift from knowing what their doing is wrong back to being bloodthirsty killers and then back again to realization. This creates horrifying situations where zombies realize they’ve just killed someone they love. I almost feel the best comparison is Romero’s “The Crazies” as far as zombie movies go. You just have to replace small town Pennsylvania with the French countryside!

Thinking of stunning visuals “Grapes” doesn’t have my favorite Rollin visuals, but still the misty landscape of the french countryside and the zombies wandering through it and crumbling villages is a treat to watch for fans of the kind of atmosphere you can find in Rollin’s films. In a couple of reviews I’ve read people seem to be critical of the zombie makeup in the film, but I find the unrealistic appearance of it to heighten its effectiveness. Seeing the blood and pus ooze out of peoples pulsating heads as they lose their mind to the pesticide is truly pretty gross.

My only real criticism of the film is that there’s some very choppy editing moments scattered throughout the film, but even then I think some of them contribute to the nightmarish mood of the film.

With its slightly more traditional plot I think “Grapes” would be a good introduction to the works of Rollin. There’s nothing confusing about it and at its heart it’s a zombie movie just done differently than most American and European ones at the time. If you’re into 70s eurohorror this is definitely one to check out.