One of the things I enjoy about the Giallo genre is creativity and sometimes sheer silliness of the film titles. It’s always fun to look up a film on IMDB and see how many different names it has gone by over the years. Typically, if one title fails to capture the mood of the film, an alternate title will. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Death on the Fourposter whose alternate English title is Sexy Party. Attempting to translate the French and Italian titles (The Demon Possessed and Crime in the Mirror, respectively) doesn’t help. Of all these titles, Death on the Fourposter seems to be the most accurate description of the film, but it’s not very original.

Titles aside, Death on the Fourposter is an important film in Giallo history. If IMDBs dates are accurate, the film was released a month before Bava’s Blood and Black Lace and features some of the most important tropes of the genre. Director/writer Jean Josipovici chooses to employ a gothic horror inspired Ten Little Indians format for the plot of the film with all the characters partying in a gloomy castle. The first half of the film is a youthful celebration of alcohol, gambling, sex, dancing, and parlor tricks, but after a psychic premonition of death by Anthony (played by John Barrymore of all people!) starts to come true, the film switches to a suspenseful mystery where no one wants to be left alone and everyone is a suspect.

A Giallo Score of 55 points would be quite low for a film released in the 1970s, but Fourposter is technically considered the second or third Giallo ever made, and ticks all the important boxes including a killer with a hidden identity, an amature detective, a motive of monetary gain, multiple suspects, an accomplice, and the killer’s suicide to avoid punishment. The film only scores 4 points in the signatures category, but we’ll let that slide since most of these hadn’t been established yet.

It’s hard to decide whether or not to consider Fourposter required viewing for Giallo enthusiasts. It’s certainly entertaining as long as your expectations aren’t too high. The currently circulating version is low grade and grainy, which might be a plus depending on what mood you’re in, and having an English language soundtrack definitely helps. But personally I don’t think the film is a must see if you’re curating a concise list of films in the genre. After Bava’s first two films, Libido is the next stop for required viewing.