Ken Russell’s “The Devils” Finally Gets Its Uncut Close-Up This October

After 55 years of censorship and near-total unavailability, Ken Russell’s “The Devils” will finally screen in cinemas as the director intended when Warner Bros.’ Clockwork label releases the film on October 16, 2026. The 4K restoration marks a watershed moment for film preservation and artistic integrity.

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TL;DR

• “The Devils” (1971) was condemned by the Vatican and banned across multiple territories after its 1971 Venice Film Festival premiere
• The film was released with significant cuts: X-rated in the UK, R-rated in the US
• Russell created a private uncut version in 2004, screened only once at London’s National Film Theatre
• A 4K restoration from the original camera negative will present “The Devils” as “uncensored, unfiltered and uncut” for the first time publicly
• The restoration premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, introduced by Russell’s widow Elize and film critic Mark Kermode

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The Masterpiece That Time (And The Vatican) Tried to Bury

“The Devils” should have been celebrated as a milestone in provocative filmmaking. Instead, it spent more than five decades in a vault, available to most audiences only as a mutilated VHS pan-and-scan dub. The reasons are both amusing and infuriating: the Vatican publicly condemned the film and called for its screening at the 1971 Venice Film Festival to be cancelled. While selected press did see the film, the public screening never materialized.

The UK X-rated cut runs approximately 1 hour and 51 minutes, while the US R-rated version is even shorter, at around 1 hour and 48 minutes. These aren’t minor trims. Entire sequences—the infamous “Rape of Christ” scene, the “femur scene,” extended exorcism moments—existed only in fragmented form online, pieced together by devoted cinephiles like a forbidden jigsaw puzzle. For completist horror and film history fans, it was maddening.

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A Director’s Vision, Locked Away

Russell privately constructed an uncut version in 2004, which was screened at the National Film Theatre in London but never received a public release
. That version remained inaccessible to the vast majority of filmmakers, critics, and scholars. The film’s cultural footprint diminished accordingly. While Russell won Best Director at Venice, his achievement was undercut by systematic suppression.

The restoration process began quietly. In January 2026, a meeting in Berlin with Clockwork’s Christian Parkes and Spencer Collantes set the restoration in motion, with film critic Mark Kermode recalling: “Christian and Spencer walk in, and I go, ‘Right. It’s Warner Bros., so it’s either The Exorcist or The Devils.'” The result exceeded all expectations.

What Was Lost, What’s Restored

The controversial sequences are only half the story. Set in 17th-century Loudun, France, “The Devils” centers on Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier and an entire convent of Ursuline nuns, who claim they were possessed by demons when the priest entered into a pact with the devil. Oliver Reed plays Grandier; Vanessa Redgrave plays Sister Jeanne, a hunchbacked nun consumed by unrequited desire and violent jealousy.

Russell’s approach is baroque, operatic, and deliberately incendiary. The nuns writhe in grotesque ecstasy. The king orchestrates hysteria for political gain. Religion becomes a vehicle for power and madness. The film is best described as “a portrait of collective madness, where power and religion collapse into violence and spectacle”. Without the missing scenes, audiences see only a fragmented version of Russell’s vision.

The new 4K restoration was assembled from the original camera negative, with sound remastered from original English Composite 35mm Mag Film transferred at 96kHz. Every frame has been treated as an artifact worthy of care. This is not a quick cleanup. This is scholarship.

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The Significance of Availability

Why does an uncut release matter? Because artistic intention matters. Because the streaming versions available on Shudder (which negotiated the rights in 2017) were not uncut, leaving audiences with an incomplete work. Because scholars and critics deserve to see what the filmmaker actually made.

More broadly, it signals a shift in how studios treat controversial art. For decades, “The Devils” was treated as a liability—better buried than defended. Warner Bros. Clockwork is partnering with the BFI in the UK on the theatrical screenings, positioning the film not as exploitation but as restoration. The inaugural release for a new specialty label makes a clear statement: this is prestige cinema.

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A UK Milestone in Horror History

The British Film Institute’s involvement is significant. The film was released with an X rating in the UK after significant edits, and was later banned in Italy and several other territories. The BFI has championed difficult British cinema for decades. Russell’s “The Devils” belongs in that canon—not hidden, but honored. UK cinemas will have access to the full restoration, and physical media (Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD) will likely follow the theatrical run through the BFI partnership, making it available to UK collectors and archives.

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Who Will Care?

Everyone who has ever felt frustrated watching an edited, compromised, or incomplete work should care. Everyone interested in how institutional power tries to suppress artistic expression should care. Everyone who loves Russell’s audacious style—from “Tommy” to “Women in Love” to “Altered States”—should absolutely care.

The production design was handled by Derek Jarman, who would go on to become one of the most significant queer filmmakers of the late 20th century. That alone makes this a document of cinema history.

The theatrical run begins October 16, 2026, as an exclusive nationwide one-week engagement in select repertory theaters. Physical media will follow. After 55 years, Russell finally gets the last word.

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Related Reading

• Horror Films Breaking Censorship Barriers
• Ken Russell’s Legacy in Modern Cinema
• Film Restoration and Archival Practice

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External Sources

• Deadline: “The Devils Teaser: Ken Russell’s Feature Set To Finally Screen in Uncut Form”
• World of Reel: “Ken Russell’s ‘The Devils’ Gets First Trailer for Uncut 4K Theatrical Release”
• The Digital Bits: “Ken Russell’s uncut The Devils is coming at last”

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