Ken Russell’s brilliantly blasphemous 1971 nunsploitation classic, The Devils, is finally seeing the light of day in its original form.
Ken Russell‘s The Devils is, on balance, the most notorious film ever made. And now it seems it may finally be coming home in its original form. A new 4K restoration taken from Russell’s original negative will debut in the Classics section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. A US theatrical release via Warner Bros new specialty label, Clockwork, is planned for October, with an international rollout following – just in time for Christmas!
Written, produced, and directed by the aforementioned Ken Russell, one of the leading weirdos of British cinema, the film stars boozy ol’ Oliver Reed as the real life historical figure Urbain Grandier, who was burned at the stake in 1634 after being accused of witchcraft by the mother superior of a local convent, Sister Jeanne des Anges (Vanessa Redgrave). Russell’s film draws on two sources, Aldous Huxley’s book The Devils of Loudun and John Whiting’s play The Devils, and presents us with a lusty, bloody, sadistic, and – believe it or not – artistically and intellectually serious tale of political manipulation, sexual obsession, and depravity. It is, as I like to say a banger.
But opinions differed back in 1971 when the film was released to massive controversy and critical condemnaion (and excellent box office in the UK). Even before The Devils saw the light of day, both the BBFC and Warner Bros cut down Russell’s director’s cut, shortening several scenes of torture and violence, and excising one – the infamous “Rape of Christ” sequence – entirely.
Since then the film has been difficult to track down, especially in its undiluted form. It’s occasionally cropped up on Shudder and the Criterion Channel, and even occasionally on TV; I first saw a remarkably explicit version on the ABC one Friday night as a teenager, but I couldn’t tell you which of several cuts doing the rounds it was. On home media, your choices have been limited to a fairly spenno (and still incomplete) UK import from the BFI, or whatever shitty copy any given fly-by-night operation was willing to sell you.
the good news is that, given the time and effort put into restoring the film, a physical and streaming release is almost certainly on the cards, although official announcements have yet to materialise.
Now, as to why The Devils has been such a holy grail for so long? Look, it’s a good question – older, weirder, and gnarlier films have been rereleased before, and many of them with much smaller audiences than this one. Film critic Mark Kermode, a long time champion of the film, is convinced that someone high up in the Warner chain of command has kept the film in the vault for the last 50 years – check out his take on the situation from a few years back below.
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