Morning Thoughts From A Devon Sitting Room: Saturday, 31st. October 2026

The sky is a uniform pale grey and it is misty but there is no rain or drizzle, it is just quietly dull like a faded black and white photograph with little or no depth of field. It is actually almost scarily quiet out there, as if all the noisiest people – and by that I really mean their cars – have been spirited away to some great scrapyard on the moon or some other soul-less place where even machines don’t make a noise. In space, no-one can hear you scream as the old saying goes.

After a busy afternoon in the pub yesterday I am looking forward to a quiet day ahead. Inappropriate perhaps for All Hallows’ Eve when scares, japes, tricks and all manner of shenanigans are not only permitted but encouraged, a day ahead of the beginning of the dark half of the year as celts celebrate Samhain. Sadly, I shall not be engaging in a great feast as would be the way of celts at Samhain; I will make do with chipolatas, fried mash and beans. However, I shall certainly enjoy a scare or two in front of the televisual device this evening. The question is: which series of films?

For some reason I found myself watching A Nightmare on Elm Street a few nights ago, restored in 4K and HDR with Dolby Atmos – they did a good job on it and even reinstated a few seconds deleted from the film where the character Tina (played by Amanda Wyss) falls from the bedroom ceiling into a lake of blood on her bed, which results in coating the walls in red splatter. Great stuff! I still say the young Johnny Depp is almost unrecognisable. Back in 1990 on a visit to LA I was driven down Elm Street by a knowledgeable chap and Hollywood addict who was hoping to become a voiceover artist. It isn’t called Elm Street of course but it was spookily similar to how it appeared in the low-budget movie just 6 years earlier. We should have driven down it at night…

So, perhaps that’s it. Have I talked myself into watching the second and third instalments of the film this evening? I shall make a pot of coffee and consider my options…