Grapes of Death [ 1978 ] Uncensored

The story..The grapes that have been used to make the red wine for a small village community have been poisoned by a pesticide. This results in all those who drink it turning into decaying maniacs intent on killing anyone who remains normal...
I thought i'd review this as i believe the 2 star ratings given so far were a bit unfair. Directed by Jean Rollin, "Grapes of Death" has many positves sure to please horror fans,especially Euro horror fans. While never really a scary film it's definitely nicely atmospheric with some effective photograpy. Maybe a bit slow paced for some, but personally i never found it dull and in fact thought it enjoyable throughout. Large parts with no dialogue work fine as the scenery on show is cool and atmosphere effective. There are some scenes of suspense and also pretty good gore sequences that impress when they come. The decaying zombie types don't have the creepy or scary look of the Fulci zombies or Blind Dead Templars. More simlar to those in things like "Mutant" or "Toxic Zombies". If you're a fan of Euro zombie films then there's no doubt you will want to see this too.
The picture quality is fine and it's in French with English subtitles.

I don't watch many Jean Rollin movies, and this one has not turned me into a fan. I can't agree with the reviewer who said this had beautiful phiotography - a lot of the film is out of focus!

Grapes of Death tells of a young girl's experience fighting off hordes of zombified villagers who have all succumbed to the effects of some tainted red wine. The film follows her flight from a train, through the countryside into a village and finally to the vineyard and wine factory. That's all that really happens.

I thought Jean Rollin had some sort of reputation as a cult director, but I can't see any evidence of much talent in this film. As I mentioned, the camerawork goes out of focus many, many times. The dialogue looks like it's all post dubbed and the acting is mostly pretty dire. The film seems to draw on the atmoshphere of "Tombs of the Blind Dead" as our heroine stumbles around an abandoned village being chased by moaning ghouls, but this film isn't half as effective as that one. The effects of the poisoned wine are achieved by giving the villagers bright green, pink and orange make up plastered over their faces and it looks really silly. Most of the blood in this film is a kind of magenta colour too, which doesn't help!

I was really disappointed in this film overall, although a couple of things work in the films favour. One is a very good central performance by the actress playing the heroine, who seems effectively terrified. Secondly, even I was shocked by a particularly graphic decapitation that happens about halfway through the film, it's the only time that I actually sat up out of my seat for the whole duration. And genre fans might be pleased to know that French babe Brigitte Lahaie has a small cameo role, and yes she gets 'em out on camera to keep the male audience members happy.

But apart from those few exceptions, the film is pretty flat and lifeless. Because the zombies/ghouls themselves are so ineffective (in being scary I mean), the film falls short of being very entertaining.

As usual, Redemption have kitted out the release with a glossy page 3 girl cover photo and their usual tiresome boobs 'n' blood intro mini-movie that can't be skipped. I really don't get this marketing idea. I certainly wouldn't say that Grapes of Death is an erotic horror film, but Redemption think everything looks better with their porno prologue clip, so we are stuck with it.

They're spraying the vinyards with something which won't agree with everyone. A couple of girls travelling through this blighted wine region discover the worst and the hunt is on. Low on dialogue, fairly limited in plot, slow in action, and frankly quite boring, the natives are gripped by some stupifying form of physical decay which inspires them to murder anyone who remains healthy.

It's been done a lot better. The physical location is beautiful and very atmospheric, and you'd think it could have been used more effectively. It's complemented by the photography, which is excellent. The acting, however, is stultified, but then there's not much of a script or a plot to inspire anyone.

Two stars, because of the scenery, the photography, and the lady in white, who could get a pulse from any self-respecting zombie. Otherwise, a very forgetable horror film.