Rating: 
Summary: When preying on humans, the red or the white wine?
Review: Only having seen three of Jean Rollin's films, I will not attempt to give you any insight into this interesting French director. My opinion of this film is the same as the other two I have seen by him: occasionally boring, yet well done with some good bloody moments. Out of the three I've seen, this is a little less exciting than The Living Dead Girl, yet less dull than The Night of the Hunted. The story is pretty straightforward: a girl is attacked by a zombie on a train, leaves the train, then roams the French countryside looking for people who can help her with the ever-increasing zombie problem. The Grapes of Death title refers to wine made from pesticide-laced grapes, which is responsible for turning people into the zombies. It's different than, say, your typical Romero or Fulci zombiefest in that the people turn into the living dead gradually. It'll be just a hand decaying at first, for example, and the FX showing this and the other gore scenes are pretty effective. The people are conscious of what is happening to them, which is pretty horrible considering what dead tissue must feel like. Don't expect the blood n' guts level of your typical zombie flick though, this movie works because of the atmosphere, realism, and, of course, Rollin's use of beautiful French women. I would say that if you are a huge fan of the Evil Dead series, Dead Alive, or other over-the-top violent gore films, Grapes of Death might be a little slow for your taste. But if you like low budget movies, arty French films, or just something different than a typical horror movie you might really enjoy it. It doesn't resort to cheap scare tactics at all, and the dialogue (subtitled) is pretty intelligently written. The provincial beauty of the French landscape is not really that scary, and there is not much music that I remember, as opposed to some of the Italian horrors of this era that feature blasting electronic scores. If you can describe a movie as a "quiet, peaceful bloodbath" then that would be my summary of Grapes of Death.
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