Most movies with extreme content from days of yore will see an uncut release at some point. As censorship regulations decrease or tastes and permissiveness change, usually a movie will see an unrated version, if not in theaters, at least in home media. In the case of Ken Russell’s 1971 film The Devils, the movie has remained nigh-impossible to see in a complete format. Russell, who also directed other controversial movies like Women in Love, Tommy, and Altered States, had trouble with The Devils from the start. Warner Bros. deemed its shocking content unsuitable for audiences, even well into the new millennium. What makes the uncut version of The Devils so controversial? In a word, blasphemy.
Now, over 50 years later, Russell’s uncut vision of “my most…indeed, my only…political film” will premiere for one week on the big screen this October. And in a brand new 4k restoration to boot. Check out the trailer below, but BEWARE INTENSE FLASHING.
Russell based the movie on the historical nonfiction novel, The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley. The story takes place in the 1600s in the walled French city of Loudon. It follows the iconoclastic (and not altogether holy) Catholic priest, Father Grandier (Oliver Reed) as he tries to keep the control of the citizenry from the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) and his serpent-like thrall over the insane King Louis the XIII (Graham Armitage).
Playing into the Cardinal’s hand is Grandier’s all-too-human desires. Grandier is a big fan of sleeping with women in his parish, for example. But it’s also the desires of the cloistered Ursuline nuns nearby. Specifically Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) who is obsessed with Grandier and resentful that she cannot have him for herself. The movie depicts a kangaroo court wherein accusations of Satanic fraternization lead to hysteria, panic, torture, and worse.
I’ve seen this movie a few times over the years and it’s one of the most arresting movies I’ve ever seen. The Devils is upsetting and scary and weird and certainly doing its own thing. But almost no one who has seen the movie has seen Russell’s original vision, which WB released heavily cut even back in the 1970s.
“The restoration of the material is like cleaning the Sistine Chapel with saliva. It is insane, the epic size of the film. I mean, I’ve seen it on the big screen in Telluride at a theater – but I’ve never seen the movie until I saw this restoration.” – Guillermo del Toro
Assembled from the original camera negative, this new 4K restoration presents Ken Russell’s definitive vision of The Devils by referencing the edit he privately constructed in 2004. Ken Russell’s The Devils is the uncut and unfiltered theatrical experience that Russell always envisioned – and the first time the film will be presented restored and in 4K. Russell died in 2011.
This new cut of The Devils has a rating of NC-17 for “sexual content and graphic nudity.” What it doesn’t say is “involving religious relics and the clergy.” North American audiences will get to see the movie in select cinemas for one week, beginning October 14, 2026. I’ll be there.
The post Controversial Film THE DEVILS Releasing NC-17 Cut Over 50 Years Later appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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