Notes from the Peninsula
On writing, films and living a creative life
A true note
I called this website ‘Notes from the Peninsula’ with the intention of posting personal thoughts and mixing in reports from a character on a quixotic quest on the coast of an imagined peninsula.
Maniac Cop
The VHS cover for Maniac Cop was iconic to video shop-haunting teens like me. Tom Atkins plays Tom Atkins as the detective, Frank McCrae, hunting a mysterious police officer who’s killing innocent people on the streets of New York. Also - Bruce Campbell!
Nightmare City
A radiation incident is reported in an anonymous Italian city moments before a military plane lands at the civilian airport. Mutant humans pour out and begin a city-wide massacre, killing indiscriminately, drinking victims blood, and infecting everyone who manages to survive.
31DaysofBlackXmas2024 DarioArgento SeenRead 31DaysofHorror2023 DavidLynch 31DaysofHorror2021
Also find me here:
Bluesky
Patreon
Letterboxd
Email
In a Violent Nature
It’s rare a film comes along in the horror space and asks questions about the form. Cabin in the Woods did it back in 2011, and this does it with the slasher genre, subverting its conventions in pointed and interesting ways.
Anna and the Apocalypse
Staying festive, a Scottish zombie musical that captures the longing to escape a small town, the tricky relationships we navigate as teenagers, with peers, parents and teachers, and the power of musical theatre to kill the undead.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
On the way home from visiting his grandfather on Christmas Eve, young Billy Chapman watches his parents slain by a robber dressed as Santa Claus. Years later, grown-up Billy gets triggered into violence when he has to be Santa Claus himself.
Christmas Bloody Christmas
A grimy, low budget, fun-but-annoying mashup of Terminator, every sleazy slasher ever, a hangout movie, Texas Chain Saw Massacre and... First Blood?
Violent Night
Santa Claus is drunk in a bar, despairing of children’s greed, and thinking about giving it all up. While delivering presents to a rural mansion, he interrupts a robbery, and to save good girl Trudy he has to call on his skills as a Viking warrior.
Saint Maud
Maud, a private nurse from a Catholic care agency, starts a new job looking after acclaimed dancer Amanda Kohl who has Stage 4 cancer and is close to death. Amanda lives a hedonistic and drama-filled life which clashes with Maud’s newfound faith.
The Day of the Beast
A real horror comedy to repair the damage of Polanski’s vampire farce. And a Christmas movie! A priest thinks he has solved the puzzle of when the Antichrist will be born, and goes to Madrid to stop it which involves giving his soul to the devil.
The Fearless Vampire Killers
I wanted something light. I remembered not enjoying this a few years back but loving it as a kid, so I gave it another go. It’s a farce based on a mixture of Hammer horror and Universal Monster films.
The Appointment
The shocking opening death of a schoolgirl becomes a realistic family drama, then a woozy nightmare of attacking dogs, car crashes and things in the woods.
I Saw the TV Glow
Nostalgia is both comforting and soul crushing. Owen bonds with Maddy over a TV show she’s obsessed with, The Pink Opaque. Maddy is miserable in her life, and decides to run away from home, giving Owen a choice that will affect the rest of his life.
Red Rooms
Kelly-Anne turns up every day at the trial of a high profile alleged serial killer who is charged with broadcasting on the dark web the torture and murder of three teenage girls. She meets a groupie of the suspect who believes he is innocent, but Kelly-Anne’s motives remain elusive.
The Card Player
Rome detective Anna Mari pairs up with rogue Irish cop John Brennan to find a gambling serial killer who challenges the police to games of online poker to save the lives of kidnapped women. Twists and turns (but not that many) ensue.
Sleepless
Young Giacomo watches a hidden figure stab his mother to death with a flute. Police Chief Moretti promises the boy he will catch the killer, and he does, but seventeen years later the killings begin again. The retired Moretti teams up with adult Giacomo to catch the Dwarf Killer who seems to be back from the dead.
The Phantom of the Opera
A baby is put in a basket and released into the sewer where rats pull it to safety and raise it as one of their own. Argento’s Phantom is the king of the rats, but also a hunky blonde stud in Julian Sands, beautiful, charming, with no mask in sight.
Gothic
I love Ken Russell. He’s not afraid to be weird, sexual, gloopy and violent. Byron, Godwin, Shelley and Polidori whip each other into a fervour as a metaphor for the artists creative process and the courage required in the face of all the imagery and emotions that can fly around while making art.
Dracula
Christopher Lee’s Dracula is iconic. He’s tall, his face carries an animalistic quality when in vampire mode, he’s sometimes slow and imposing, but then he strides up castle stairs three at a time. Beneath his civility is a barely held in check hunger. It’s wonderful to watch.
The Eternal Daughter
Julie, an artist and photographer, takes her mother to a luxurious country hotel for her birthday, but is unsettled by strange noises and half-seen figures. The hotel was once her mother’s family home, and the visit unearths unexpected memories.