The Grapes Of Death, 1978

  Two friends, Élisabeth and Brigitte, are traveling on an almost otherwise empty train across the French countryside. After Brigitte leaves her to freshen up, a man boards and joins Élisabeth in their compartment - He is boil-covered and diseased-looking. As he sits there, his purification spreads and shortly, she can stand no more and runs out and down the corridor. As she gets to the end of the car, she finds her friend has been killed. She jumps the train and flees the ever-increasingly pustulant and now-pursuing, apparent assailant… To a quiet villa.

Sadly, Élisabeth’s troubles are only beginning as the deeply rural village is populated with less-than-hospitable townsfolk, many of whom seem in the grip of an illness that causes psychotic violence, oozing decay, and seemingly, living death. Oh, plus, almost all of these residents evidently wish to do very unpleasant things to her.

Okay, sure, that opening scene on the train, (with the death of her companion, the attack on her, and her desperate escape,) all sound suspiciously similar to ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ from only a decade earlier, and true, it more than likely was looking to coat-tail on the now-growing zombie movie popularity, but these zombies are quite different.

The 'ghouls' from The Grapes of Death are, (according to writer/direct Jean Rollin,) between life and death. They can show some signs of awareness, speech, tool use, deception. And they even sometimes show remorse at their actions.

Also, they don’t consume flesh, they don’t spread zombism through bites, and one need not destroy the brain to kill them. Plus, once dead, they stay dead.

So, not zombies, 'infected.' Oh, definitely infected. In fact, as the opening credits ran, we are treated to a group of workers spraying down the grapevines with a pesticide. The grapevines that produce the wine that all of the locals drink. Ah, NOW the name makes sense.

I let my Zombie Movie Rubric judge this “Non-Zombie” movie and The Grapes of Death scored itself a respectable 2.3 points out of a potential 4. 

    This ‘Better than Average’ rating equates to an enjoyable watch. But, I’d recommend The Grapes of Death with the following caveats: 1) It is NOT your average zombie/infected film, 2) it is a bit dated, (1978,) and 3) it is in French. If you’re okay with those conditions, this may be a nice, gory, little, late-night treat.

YouTube has a nice, long trailer, here: THE GRAPES OF DEATH

The Horde, (2009)

    Imagine if Die Hard took place during a zombie apocalypse instead of Christmas. There ya go. Lemme 'splain.

    The murder of a French police officer incites the revenge of his fellow cops against the gang responsible. Things go wrong. And then, things go VERY f'in' wrong! A surprisingly abrupt and widespread outbreak envelops Paris turning the dead into ravenous, animal-type zombies. The surviving cops and the surviving criminals must form an uneasy truce to stay alive.

    This film is not, (read that with some emphasis,) NOT played with any tongue-in-cheek, quirky cuteness or remotely lighthearted "zom-comedy." This is a straight-up, action/horror film. The Horde delivers on suspense, action, a metric shitload of zombie gore, and some good, spot-on scares. The fact that the characters are developed, identifiable, and engaging is complimented by the decent acting of the cast.

    The zombies are of the "Runner' type: All a-growly and angry, but in this tight and claustrophobic environment, it works well. 

    This is definitely for those zombie movie fans who like the 'action' element of Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, or even World War Z. Okay, sure. It IS in French, (but trust me, read the damned subtitles. Voice over-dubbing only screws the pooch on these things!) but the action pushes the character development as much as the dialog, so it is not that much of an intrusion to the story. 

    The Zombie Movie Rubric gave it a respectable 3.0 which translates to watchable and even re-watchable!

    Don't avoid it because of the 'foreign-ness!' It is worth the French! See for yourself with this trailer found on YouTube: THE HORDE 

The Night Eats The World, 2018

Sam stops by his ex-friend’s to collect his ‘tapes,’ only to find a raging party happening. He has a few drinks and eventually passes out in a locked room. When he wakes up the following morning, the world is quiet and everyone is dead… Or undead.

    Sam begins the task of cleaning up and clearing out the Paris apartment building, and fortifying it for a long haul. He must forage the former residents pantries, and meticulously budgeting his finds, all while desperately trying to stave off boredom and paranoia.

After what seems like months, Sam meets Sarah. But Sarah has a different philosophy and tries to convince Sam into finding a way out, instead of just staying put.

The whole movie plays on that ‘desperation and loneliness,’ theme, but still works in quite a few good zombie scares.

And those zombies were great! Squarely Romeros, but not TOO slow! And they were completely and totally silent. No growling, no gasping, nothing. Now you might not think this is huge, but, I’ll tell you, there is a massive creepiness factor to that, and really makes being moving around risky in a dead quiet world.

Aside from that, it is a standard ‘guy wakes up and everyone else is dead’ movie, (file along with ‘#Alive’ or ‘Rammbock,)’ but still done really well, and served with a deep look into the psychological trauma of enforced isolation.

But let’s see how it holds up to the completely objective, and totally non-biased grading tool - The ZMR! 

Well, the movie’s slow pace and the overall lack of originality may have dragged it down a bit, but those  awesome undead, big budget production quality, and cool special effects earned The Night Eats The World a 2.66 out of a possible 4.0. This puts it as an above average entry in the Zombie Apocalypse film world!

But overall, it is just a fun, scary, creepy, zombie movie!

Oh yeah, there is also pretty cool YouTube trailer here:

 THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD