The Grapes of Death

1978 French zombie movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Elisabeth is traveling on a train to meet her fiance and befriends a fellow passenger. When her new BFF excuses herself, a guy with a gross neck wound comes and sits by her. She later discovers that her BFF dead in the bathroom and flees the train in terror. She wanders around a nearby town and finds a lot more people with gross wounds who all chase her slowly.

This is all atmosphere and very little story and has its own sort-of incoherent dream logic that can be frustrating, but this isn't a bad cheap little movie. There's a dreamy fuzziness that's either the result of the low budget or an attempt to dreamify this unfortunate woman's story, and a lot of shots are just out of focus. If that's intentional, it might be a lousy idea. Some gory scenes in the middle of all this wandering around--one features an ax and a girl nailed to a door while another has a pitchfork and a rubbery abdomen--are shocking detours, and there's a fantastic scene where a guy makes out with a severed head if you're into that sort of thing. And why wouldn't you be? Being a French zombie flick, you're bound to get a scene where a woman freely disrobes in order to prove that she's not infected. Guy One watching the unplanned strip tease tells her, "You didn't have to do that" and Guy Two shoots him this great look. Also, since this is French, I'm just going to go ahead and assume that it's all lesbian symbolism. Check out that title, by the way. It's a good one, sure, but is that the correct translation? I don't speak French exactly, but I'm pretty sure this one's actually called Mort's Raisins.