One of cinema’s most controversial films is finally coming to the big screen. Restored in 4K, Ken Russell’s The Devils opens in select North American theaters this October, via Warner Bros. Clockwork. The studio secured an NC-17 rating for sexual content and graphic nudity. As a result, this marks the first official NC-17 release in Warner Bros.’ 103-year history.
Meticulous Audio and Visual Restoration
The Director’s Cut rebuilds the masterpiece directly from the original camera negative. Meanwhile, sound engineers transferred the original English 35mm audio at a crisp 96kHz. This extensive restoration references Russell’s private 2004 edit and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. As a result, audiences can experience the director’s precise vision as originally intended.
A Dark Tale of Religious Hysteria
Russell’s 1971 masterpiece delivers a furious account of the 17th-century Loudun witch trials. Political conspirators accuse Father Urbain Grandier of sorcery and controlling a convent of Ursuline nuns. Adapted from Aldous Huxley’s book and John Whiting’s play, the story explores political power and repressed obsession.
Decades of Censorship and Outrage
The most infamous censored section is the notorious “Rape of the Christ” scene. In this sequence, the Ursuline nuns, driven into a state of mass hysteria and sexual frenzy, desecrate a statue of Jesus Christ. Religious groups found the imagery so deeply offensive that Warner Bros. cut it entirely before the original 1971 theatrical release.
The second major restoration adds extended footage centered on the convent’s prioress, Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). The footage explicitly details her repressed sexual obsession with Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed). Specifically, it restores a disturbing vision where Jeanne hallucinates Grandier as Christ, leading to explicit, sacrilegious acts that link her religious devotion directly with her sexual frustration.
The film fully integrates both long-lost sequences using the original camera negative, letting viewers finally see Ken Russell’s complete, unedited vision.
Watch The Devils in select theaters on October 16. But be warned, this movie is not for the sensitive.
Warning: Flashing Images
