Gloriously bloody and intensely tactile, Ken Russell’s definitive 4K cut of The Devils is a truly visceral experience for the eyes, ears and soul. A beautifully restored film that is sure to have the last laugh at those who would scorn its place in cinema history.
Before cancel culture, there was censorship, something that British heavyweight director Ken Russell came to know all too well following the original release of The Devils in 1971. The film, based on a non-fiction work by Aldous Huxley called The Devils of Loudun, was heavily criticised for its supposed blasphemy, poor-taste sexual depravity and general ‘evil’ intentions. The Pope tried to get the film shunned from the Venice Film Festival, and in America, it was cut to within an inch of its life by the censors. Such was the power of these censors in both the US and Britain that, for many years, this cut was the only version available. However, in 2004, the film was reconstructed to its full glory, and has now been fully restored in 4K. Ken Russell’s The Devils is now presented in its true definitive cut, and watching this film on the big screen, with a good sound system, is well worth the nearly 60-year wait.
For those not in the know, The Devils is a dramatised account of a spate of supposed mass hysteria and demonic possession which occurred in 17th-century France. Oliver Reed plays Grandier, the original hot priest who seduces nearly everyone he meets into a frenzy, one of whom is Vanessa Redgrave’s saintly Sister Jeanne, who, together with her gaggle of sexually repressed convent sisters, convince the town that they have been possessed by the priest’s lustful inner devils. The film’s themes cover the political, theological and erotic, all bound up into one, and interlaced within the film’s climactic debauchery, these allusions brim to the surface.
The film was always exceptionally performed and dazzling to behold, but the restoration has given it the gleam it always deserved. Derek Jarman’s grand neoclassical sets and Shirley Russell’s flamboyant costumes come alive in 4K crispness, and the many shades of black which complement the film’s dark heart are all the deeper post-restoration. The sound is loud and biting, and Peter Maxwell Davies’ score is unrelenting, like an uncaged animal that could burst from the speakers at any second.
Then we have the moments that befell the axe of the censors, and one in particular, in which, during the height of the convent’s hysteria, a statue of Jesus is taken from a wall and ‘raped’ by dozens of women. The infamous ‘rape of Jesus’ scene is powerful, passionate and primal, and in many ways is the film’s thematic climax. To omit such a scene is surely to sever an integral part of the identity of the film, akin to painting the Mona Lisa only for her eyes to be gouged out on the day of exhibition. The Jesus scene, along with the other omissions, violent as they might be, are intrinsically linked to the vision of the director, and Ken Russell was a true visionary. With the fresh lick of paint that the 4K restoration has added, the bold, daring and haunting imagery and narrative are all the more immersive.
Ken Russell’s The Devils has its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 9 October and is released in cinemas in the UK & Ireland on 30 October 2026