Les Raisins de la Mort

Les Raisins de la Mort

Original Release Poster
Directed by Jean Rollin
Produced by Christian Ruh
Written by Jean-Pierre Bouyxou
Christian Meunier
Jean Rollin
Starring Marie-Georges Pascal
Félix Marten
Serge Marquand
Mirella Rancelot
Patrice Valota
Patricia Cartier
Michel Herval
Paul Bisciglia
Brigitte Lahaie
Olivier Rollin
Françoise Pascal
Evelyne Thomas
Jean-Pierre Bouyxou
Music by Philippe Bissmann
Edited by Christian Stoianovich
Dominique Saintcyr
Release date
  • 5 July 1978 (1978-07-05)
Running time
 90 minutes
Country France
Language French

Les Raisins de La Mort (English title: The Grapes of Death) is a 1978 French horror film directed by Jean Rollin. It centres on a young woman who becomes trapped in a village where a dangerous pesticide has turned the residents into aggressive zombies.[1][2]

Plot

When a worker at the Roublès winemaking vineyard becomes ill, complaining of a pain in his neck, his boss insists it's a minor injury and tells him to go back to work.

Élizabeth is travelling by train to Roublès to live with her fiancé, the owner of the vineyard. She makes a friend with a woman on the train. The worker with the neck pain boards the train and stares at Élizabeth's friend. Élizabeth becomes worried when her new friend excuses herself to visit the restroom and doesn't return for a long time; the man then comes and sits with her. The man's neck starts to bleed. Élizabeth escapes him and discovers her friend dead on the restroom floor.

Leaving the train, Élizabeth flees to a nearby village for help. A man and his daughter are sitting quietly inside a house. Élizabeth describes to them what happened, and they tell her to rest and recover from her shock. Panicking, she enters the bedroom and discovers a woman whose throat has been cut. The man's daughter calmly explains that the dead woman is her mother, and that her father killed her because he's become insane. The woman and Élizabeth leave the house, but her father catches them and rips open his daughter's blouse to reveal several wounds. He has the same wounds; so did the man on the train. He tells his daughter she will not suffer the way he did and sticks a garden fork into her chest. Élizabeth flees and takes the man's car. When he gets in front of it and begs her to kill him, she runs him over and drives off.

Élizabeth travels further into the village to look for help and is approached by a man whose head is covered with the infection. He smashes his head against the car window until it breaks and Élizabeth shoots him. She comes across a blind girl named Lucy who is searching for her caregiver, Lucas. Élizabeth helps her and discovers a lot of dead bodies covered with the infection. Lucy knows something is wrong but Élizabeth won't tell her so she runs of in search of Lucas. She eventually finds him, unaware he is infected and insane and he strangles her. Élizabeth hears her screams and finds her dead and tied up to a door, where Lucas chops off her head. As the zombies chase her, a woman rescues her. This woman has been trapped in a house for a few days, so she and Élizabeth try to get out and run, but the woman grabs Élizabeth and gives her to Lucas. Two men, Paul and Lucien show up and start to kill the zombies. The woman goes to them for help, so they tell her to wait by their truck. Élizabeth fights Lucas off and goes to the truck where she and the woman get into a fight, resulting in the woman getting her face burned. She then blows up the truck.

Élizabeth, Paul and Lucien walk to Roublès and on the way they discover that it was a wine festival on the Sunday before that caused the villagers to turn into zombies. Once they arrive at Roublès, Paul and Lucien have something to eat while Élizabeth searches for her fiancé. She finds him and discovers he is infected. Paul shoots him so Èlizabeth shoots Paul and then she shoots Lucien.

Cast

Home media

Les raisins de la mort was first made available on DVD in the United States via Synapse Films on 25 April 2002; this special edition release preserved its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1. It received a second US release on 20 May 2008 by Redemption Films. Both releases of the film in the US were uncut.

In the United Kingdom, the film was released on DVD by Redemption Films on 25 April 25, also in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1.

Redemption released the film for the first time on Blu-ray in the US and Canada on 25 April 2013.[3]

Other titles

The Grapes of Death
Pestizide
Pesticide
The Raisins of Death
Foltermühle der gefangenen Frauen

References

  1. ↑ "The Grapes of Death: or, Gateway to Rollin's Realm". mmmmmovies.blogspot.com. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Classic Horror: The Grapes of Death". classic-horror.com. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  3. ↑ "The Grapes of Death Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
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