I went in to this one expecting the usual 70s eco-horror picture, but got a lot more than planned. Yeah, as the oft-repeated Mystery Science Theater 3000 catchphrase says, we get plenty of humans "tampering in God's domain," but The Grapes of Death offers much more. Like the titular vineyard grapes which have been sprayed with a nasty toxin, the film has been doused in some Cronenberg-worthy sexual transgression and leftist political subversion. The plot, such as it is, just follows a woman around the French countryside as she battles through hoards of wine-besotted "zombies" on the way to her fiance, the manager of a local winery and the inventor of a new (and untested) pesticide. I say "zombies" in quotation marks because the unfortunate souls in this film aren't undead, but rather driven to insanity and gloopy flesh by the tainted wine. It's much more The Crazies than Night of the Living Dead. This adds a lot more depth to the monsters - particularly disturbing is a father's remorse over having slaughtered his wife and daughter. Repulsed by what he's become, he implores her to finish him off. It's a haunting bit that packs much more wallop than a traditional zombie film could pull off. Scenes like that, the often-striking visuals, and some out-of-left field musings on what it means to truly fight for France and the casual exploitation of the working man elevate this above the usual pulp. I don't know if there's an especially strong through-line to the politics on display here, but making wine the vessel of the bourgeoisie's self-imposed stuporous destruction is a nice touch.
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