‘The Devils’: Ken Russell’s Masterpiece Can Finally Be Seen As Intended

It’s a wonderful fact of current cinemagoing life that opportunities to see 4K restorations of classic films are in no short supply these days. Even so, in our area of reliable retrospective screenings, Ken Russell’s The Devils is a particularly important one to be coming to theatres.

Indeed, unlike easily accessible and widely acclaimed blockbusters that have and continue to reliably make bank, The Devils has been mired in controversy across all 55 years of its existence. Largely censored and rarely ever seen in the way its late director intended, Russell’s film is finally being shown uncut in the way it was meant to be seen, and arrives in cinemas with renewed relevance for the 21st century.

In case you’re not familiar, The Devils is based on real events that took place in the town of Loudun, France and alleged possessions that took place there. At the centre of it lies two people of the cloth: the endlessly charismatic priest Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), who is accused of witchcraft by the sexually repressed nun Jeanne des Anges (Vanessa Redgrave). Put mildly, chaos ensues.

A timeless psychological horror masterpiece

Watching it for the first time with this beautiful restoration, it’s easy to see why The Devils has endured even in spite of its endless censorship. There’s a certain timeless feel that The Devils has, owed to a triumvirate of elements – Russell’s sensationally astute work as writer-director, a magnificent cast and gorgeously anachronistic production design by Derek Jarman.

Few films have opened up such a wide pit in my stomach as The Devils did, effortlessly mounting its building anxiety into a full-fledged burst of mania. It’s not a film that derides faith in itself, per se, but in the church as an institution – many of the characters are outright hypocrites who wield faith for the sake of power, from the salacious yet good-natured Grandier to the secretly lustful Sister Jeanne.

Particularly hypocritical are those who wield the power of church and state for the sake of eventually punishing Grandier and, in doing so, achieving their own political gains. Despite having a slightly inconsistent worldview himself, Reed’s Grandier carries himself with a certain poise that makes him admirable in spite of his perceived flaws (thanks especially to his actor’s remarkable performance).

The Devils is well-worth seeing in cinemas, as it was intended

On the contrary, Sister Jeanne is unable to resolve the contradictions of her faith and her yearning for Grandier. Redgrave’s performance is quite powerful and upsetting, especially when the greatest hypocrites of The Devils – like the politically-minded Baron de Laubardemont (Dudley Sutton) or sadistic exorcist Pierre Barre (Michael Gothard) – unashamedly use her to their own ends.

By my reading, this to me provides the film’s most cutting piece of commentary – that truly devilish behaviour is not that supernaturally possesses us, but that which takes hold of us when whipped into fervour by dogma. In a world ever-fracturing into insulated groups, this film is a potent warning about the follies of ideology when it’s accepted uncritically.

For that reason and many others, this 4K restoration of The Devils places it firmly among the greatest horror films of all time. Viscerally affecting and terribly haunting, it’s one I’ll be thinking about for some time yet – and one I highly recommend catching in theatres for both its cultural significance and for the fact it really is that good.

★★★★★

The 4K restoration of The Devils is playing in cinemas now.