Dir. Ken Russell · 1971, restored 2026 · 114 min · in cinemas
Ken Russell's The Devils was cut, banned and argued over for more than fifty years. Now it returns in a new 4K restoration of the director's cut, shown publicly for the first time at Cannes Classics in May. The critics who have seen it are close to unanimous: this is the version to see, and that the film still shocks and, in Tallerico's words at RogerEbert.com, feels angrier than ever. A warning first: it carries an NC-17 rating in the US, and it earns it.
France, 1634. Cardinal Richelieu wants the walled towns of the country stripped of their defences. The town of Loudun is exempt by the king's order, and when its governor dies, the proud, popular, worldly priest Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed) takes charge. Across the street, Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave), the abbess of the convent, is consumed by an obsession with him. When the king's man arrives to pull down the walls, Grandier stands in his way, and Jeanne and her allies turn on him with an accusation of witchcraft. The film is based on Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun and John Whiting's play, and the production design is by Derek Jarman. That is as far as this review goes into the plot.
The critics start with the performances and the look. Taylor Williams at Slant calls Reed commanding and says Redgrave may be giving the best performance of her career. Joe Lipsett at Bloody Disgusting makes the same point about both leads and singles out Jarman's sets and David Watkin's cinematography as a "beautiful nightmare". Brian Tallerico at RogerEbert.com calls the restoration mesmerizing and says the new 4K picture, taken from the original camera negative, brings out the production design. Slant also praises Peter Maxwell Davies's free-jazz score.
This new restored 4K is the defining version of the film
Joe Lipsett, Bloody Disgusting
The restoration matters because of what it puts back. Warner Bros. removed material before the film reached the British censors in 1971, and the US cut went further. Two cut sequences, the one known as "the Rape of Christ" and a scene of Sister Jeanne with a bone, come back in the new version, according to Slant and Fangoria. Russell, the editor Michael Bradsell, Mark Kermode and Paul Joyce put the cut together from studio reels, and it was finished in 2004. Slant describes the restoration as the first time the uncut version can be seen in theatres.
There is little for the critics to complain about, which is itself a thing to be aware of. Tallerico's one reservation is that it is "a lot of movie". Lipsett wants more of Redgrave. Williams notes that as Grandier's persecution deepens, the film drains out the humour that carried its early scenes, and he takes this as design, not a flaw. The honest caution is the film's subject: sexual hysteria, religious abuse of power and torture, shown without softening. It is not a film that tries to be comfortable, and many people will reasonably not want to sit through it.
On the restoration they do not. On the film they once did: reviews in 1971 were largely hostile, Pauline Kael wrote that Russell "doesn't report hysteria, he markets it", and the Vatican condemned it. Fifty-five years on, the reading has flipped, and Liam Gaughan at Far Out gives it a 5 and calls the director's cut a breathtaking achievement. The old complaint, that it is exploitation, has not vanished. What has changed is that reviewers now treat the satire of church and state as the point of the film, and several say it feels more relevant than ever.
Tap what applies. This is a guide built from the critical reading above, not a verdict on your taste.
Pick any that sound like you.
The restoration is released by Warner Bros. Clockwork, with the BFI as its UK partner. It opens for a one-week run in North America on 16 October 2026 and in the UK and Ireland on 30 October 2026, according to the BFI. Dates for other countries are not confirmed in the sources I found for other countries, so check your local cinema listings. Availability varies by country. No home-video release has been announced yet.