70's movie about moss like substance grows in forest and kills people who touch

[Lunatic]

I'm looking for the name of a movie about moss like substance grows on trees and when you come into contact with it you die except for this teenager whom somehow became immune and kills anybody he comes into contact with. A mother drops her baby and he catches the child but then immediately the baby dies in his arms. So now the town goes after him. The other part I remember is a woman walks with a boyfriend in the woods and he begins to rape her. As she is lying down, she spots the moss like thing on the tree and touches it killing the guy and herself at the same time.

Any help is very much appreciated.

[Rayo Casablanca]

I've seen this one come up before. The immune guy worked in a greenhouse and drank a liquid made from the moss, right?
Hmmm. Let me see what I can find.

[Rayo Casablanca]

So I'm getting obsessed with solving this. Can you tell us where you saw it? TV? At a theatre? Perhaps it was a regional film. Was it sold as a horror film or a drama?

[316zombie]

AARRGGHHH!! i remember this movie, but not the title! i saw it at the drive in in my massachusetts hometown, it was the second feature after "it's alive!"!
shoot. now i'm going to be joining rayo in his obsession.

[Rayo Casablanca]

Hey 316zombie - That's awesome. I have truly become obsessed with this film and I can't believe you've seen it! Anything else you can add about it? Any search terms other than "moss"? Was the plant the focus of the film? Could it have been part of an anthology pic?

[316zombie]

i keep thinking it was actually lichens, you know those shelf kind that grow on the north side of pine trees up north?
it MAY have been part of an anthology pic, i've always been a huge fan of those. i own a ton of them and we always went to the drivein to see them, my momma and i.

[Rayo Casablanca]

Thanks 316zombie, this certainly helps but... man, this is a rough film to track down. I really haven't been able to come up with anything. My guess is that it was potentially a regional flick that made the drive-in rounds but never showed up anywhere else. That or it's possibly a made-for-tv movie that was released theatrically. Either way, it's not coming up anywhere.

I'm curious, would you call it a horror movie? A drama? Any thoughts on where this lichen came from? Was it alien or just some weird deadly plant?

[Lunatic]

I'm recalling that it was in the late 70's or early 80's on TV and I'm not sure if it was a drink made from the moss that transforms him or even if he worked in a greenhouse. Some people suggested it was another movie about a family that lived in the forest. I know its not a movie called Moss Man or something like that. I think at the end of the movie, the whole town goes after him, chases him into the woods, and burns him down.

[316zombie]

i remember that part! he gets burned along with the"evil" part of the forest, right??
but i swear, i remember it as being those awful mushroom things, not moss? maybe thebaby shrooms looked like moss?
damn, this is KILLING ME!!

[Rayo Casablanca]

I doubt either of these are the film but let's just make sure to cross them off the list of potentials.

Could it have been GARDEN OF DEATH (1974) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072133/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_42 or EYES OF FIRE (83) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085515/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1?

[316zombie]

nope, neither of those. i'm a joe fan,LOVE garden of evil, he is SO BAD in that movie, lol! eyes of fire is too late, i saw it in massachusetts around 77,78, as i was still in high school.

[Rayo Casablanca]

I didn't think so. There's a reason this has gone unsolved for so long. Perhaps you're misremembering aspects of the film? Can I ask a few more questions:

1. Was it considered a horror film?
2. Could you tell if it was American made?
3. Could the moss (or lichen) have been something alien? Was it surely a plant?
4. Could this have been an episode of a TV show?

[316zombie]

the only one i can answer immediately is that it couldn't have been a tv show(for me), since i saw it at the drivein.

[Rayo Casablanca]

Hey Lunatic, 316zombie -

I think I might have tracked this down. Incredibly.
For the longest time, I assumed this was just a bad dream you both somehow shared.
That being said, I have a couple more questions:

1. Was the teen guy who worked/hung out in the greenhouse a weirdo? Peeping tom? Photographer?
2. Was there a scene where a man cuts a leaf on a plant and it bleeds red blood?
3. Does the teen transform at the end into a "plant man," i.e. green skin and leaves, moss, vines on his face?
4. Could it have been an early 80s movie and dubbed into English?

[Rayo Casablanca]

If you answered yes to question 3, did he look like this?

http://postimg.org/image/ypt50e9m3/