In 1971, Warner Bros. released two films on either side of the Atlantic that have gone down as being among the most controversial in cinema history. Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, adapted from Anthony Burgess’ novel, drew critical acclaim and outrage for its ultraviolent brand of nihilism, but made it to screens in one piece. Ken Russell’s The Devils on the other hand, a positively blasphemous adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s 1952 historical novel The Devils of Loudun starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, had to be hacked down mercilessly in the edit to achieve a theatrical release. But now, 55 years later, ‘The Russell Cut’ of The Devils is finally about to be unleashed.
Per a press release issued by Warner Bros. earlier today, the director’s cut of Ken Russell’s The Devils is, in an instance of poetic happenstance, set to be the inaugural release from the studio’s new ‘Clockwork’ imprint. A new 4K restoration of the movie that’s been ‘cut to Ken Russell’s specific direction’, the director’s cut of The Devils is set to make its world premiere in the Cannes Classics strand of the Cannes Film Festival later this month. Then, for the rest of us, we can look forward to seeing the film release in cinemas globally later this year, with the BFI partnering on the movie’s UK release.
For those who haven’t seen The Devils in any of its existing forms, the movie — long since championed by the likes of Mark Kermode and Guillermo del Toro, garlanded with Venice Film Festival and U.S. National Board of Review Best Director nods, and legendary among horror movie lovers for its boundary-pushing content and borderline mythic missing scenes — is set in 17th century France and details the ‘true’ story of a group of Ursuline nuns’ experience of demonic possession, the mass exorcisms which followed, and the public trial and burning of one Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed). Exploring themes of religious manipulation, absolution, institutional and moral corruption, the dark side of power and the strength of the human spirit, The Devils may shock in content but only as much as it awes in its artistry. From Derek Jarman’s neofuturistic, Metropolis inspired set designs, to Peter Maxwell Davies’ unholy score, to Reed and Redgraves’ career-defining performances, it’s a hell of a thing to behold — at times quite literally.
Ken Russell’s director’s cut of The Devils — the long awaited and now soon to be publicly seen for the first time ever ‘Russell Cut’ — is due to hit cinemas stateside for one week only on 16 October, 2026. International rollout of this historic cinema release will follow soon after. So say your prayers, make your peace with your chosen higher power, and be prepared: The Devils is coming, and you don’t want to miss it.
