Ken Russell's The Devils restored and re-released uncut in UK cinemas

Mixed · 2Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils has been restored and re-released in its complete form after years of censorship. 1 2 Left · 1The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw describes it as a film originally banned for obscenity, and says Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave give the performances of their lives. 1 Mixed · 2The film is based on the true story of mass hysteria in 17th-century Loudun, western France, and was adapted by Russell from Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun and John Whiting's stage play The Devils. Reed plays the priest Urbain Grandier, accused of witchcraft, and Redgrave plays the abbess Sister Jeanne des Anges. 1 2

Centre · 1Collider's Samuel R. Murrian says the restoration was made by Warner Clockwork, an arthouse label founded in late 2025 for which this is the first theatrical release. It used elements from Russell's personal copy of the film as well as the original negative. 2 Centre · 1Collider reports that the theatrical run was extended beyond its original one-week window. It also says several previously censored scenes had been considered lost until critic Mark Kermode reportedly found them, mislabelled and decomposing, in a Warner Bros. vault in 2002. 2 Left · 1Bradshaw reads the film as being about the violence of authority rather than sexual imagery, and as a work about fascism and the cynicism of religious and state power. He also praises Derek Jarman's set designs and Peter Maxwell Davies's music. 1

Centre · 1Murrian calls it a masterpiece and says the restored scenes, including a long-lost orgy set atop a crucifix, are essential to its meaning. The reviewer says they once dismissed the film after seeing a censored bootleg, and compares it with The Exorcist and Bad Lieutenant as a drama about Catholic faith. 2