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.

Somewhere in the midst of the zombie craze that exploded in the late 60s to the mid-80s, this French-made one is probably the least known. While not technically a zombie film, it's the closest genre to compare it to. Jean Rollin the director was often known for making low budget schlock, but with this big budget disaster flick he shows he's quite a masterful storyteller. His keen eye for even the slightest of gestures to the gory special effects blend perfectly with the well-written characters and dialogue. Now the story: Elizabeth (played by Marie-Georges Pascal) is riding a train with her friend. She's going to visit her fiancé who works in a vineyard. At the vineyard, they've recently started using a new type of chemical pesticide. However, some of the workers are starting to feel weird. In a grisly opening scene, Elizabeth watches a man's face disintegrate right before her eyes. While fleeing the man, she stumbles upon the body of her friend. She manages to escape off the train. The man has followed her off the train, but then sits down on the tracks, a look of utter despair on his face. From that point on, she comes across stranger and stranger people all suffering in various stages from some kind of decay. The worse it gets, the crazier and more zombie-like the people become. This movie borrows ideas from Romero's DEAD movies as well as THE CRAZIES but then takes those concepts in new directions. Marie-Georges Pascal plays the part of Elizabeth wonderfully. She's got such a beautiful, expressive face. Whether she's crying, screaming, or just has a look of hopelessness, you feel for her. Sadly as I stated earlier, this is a little known gem that deserves to be rediscovered. So please, if you can find it, hunt down this not-quite-a-zombie film. It's worth discovering!

Chased from her train by a bloodthirsty madman sporting a face of decaying flesh young Élisabeth flees into the desolate and bleak French countryside.Unbeknownst to our heroine an experimental pesticide has tainted the region's grape harvest and all imbibers of the local vintage have been viciously mutated into deranged zombie-like killers.It's hard to classify "The Grapes of Death" as a zombie film,mainly because it features living people driven into murderous rage by contaminated wine.As the most of Jean Rollin's works "The Grapes of Death" is set in an eerily isolated and lifeless landscape loaded with empty fields,misty bridges and crumbling houses.There is a good deal of gore including particularly gruesome decapitation and lovely full-frontal nudity scene provided by Brigitte Lahaie.8 out of 10.

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!