Menstrual blood becomes a focal point for embarrassment on two occasions, subtly feathering in a discourse on how often the arts are a boy’s club anyway, but also allowing Quirke to both foreshadow a bloody outcome and connect to the idea of feminine horror on a more primal level. The need to compete, always. Not just with your fellow sisters (literally and figuratively) but always within the male dominated world we all live in. We’re supposed to be repulsed by menstruation. But where has this suggestion come from? If Nocturne has an iconic sequence, it is when Juliet strides across campus clutching a handful of used tampons in her fist. It both rejects and redefines our associations. It feels defiant. An act intended to shame that’s being weaponised against the aggressor.

My full review is here: thelosthighwayhotel.com/2020/10/18/review-nocturne/