The Grapes of Death
The Grapes of Death is a 1978 film from France, directed by Jean Rollin, running 87 minutes. reelscum files it under euro-gothic and zombie.
- Year
- 1978 · 1970s films
- Country
- France
- Runtime
- 87 min
- Director
- Jean Rollin
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (39/100)
- Also known as
- The Raisins of Death
Defined in the glossary: Euro-gothic, Zombie
Rollin does an outbreak. A pesticide turns wine-country villagers into oozing killers.
Jean Rollin's move into gorier territory, and one of the first films to treat a zombie-like outbreak as ecological horror. A pesticide sprayed on vineyards turns the rural population into decaying, murderous carriers, and a young woman flees across an emptying French countryside as the infection spreads.
It has Rollin's usual dreamy melancholy but a harder, bloodier edge, and the wine-country setting gives it a specific unease. More coherent than his vampire films, and grim.
Trailer
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The cycle in depth
- Fantaterror: the Spanish horror boom, 1968 to 1976
Two cuts of every film, one for the censor in Madrid and one for the drive-in. Democracy killed the trick in two years.
- Gut-munchers: the Italian zombie boom, 1979 to 1983
There was no first one. Argento recut Romero, Fulci forged the sequel, and Italy spent four years feeding the British censors.
Filed alongside
A Virgin Among the Living Dead
Franco at his dreamiest. Distributors added zombies later without telling him.
The Living Dead Girl
Rollin's best late film. Melancholy where the Italians were loud.
99 Women
Franco doing the formula early, with Mercedes McCambridge as the warden.
Alucarda
The most hysterical nunsploitation film ever made. A convent, two possessed girls, and constant screaming.
Hell of the Living Dead
Bruno Mattei rips off Dawn of the Dead with a Goblin score he also stole. Gloriously shameless.
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
Barbara Steele married to a necrophile surgeon, and Freda smuggling it past the 1962 censors on innuendo alone.
The Blood Spattered Bride
Spanish Carmilla adaptation with an unusually pointed anger about marriage.
Kill, Baby... Kill!
A ghost child with a white ball. Fellini and Scorsese both stole from it.
The Shiver of the Vampires
Rollin with a fuzz-guitar band and a vampire who lives in the clock. His most fun.
Lisa and the Devil
Bava's most personal film, and his strangest. Telly Savalas as the devil, holding a lollipop.
Succubus
Franco's arthouse credentials, such as they are. Fritz Lang liked it.
Maciste in Hell
A muscleman drops into a full gothic hell. Peplum crossbred with a haunted-castle picture, and it looks it.