Ken Russell’s ‘The Devils’ Finally Gets Its Director’s Cut

For decades, cinephiles have passed around bootlegs, argued about its legacy, and mourned what they couldn’t legally see. Now, Ken Russell’s The Devils — one of the most controversial, most suppressed, and most mythologized films ever made — is finally coming to theaters in the version its director always intended.

A new 4K restoration, assembled from Russell’s original camera negative, will premiere as an official selection in Cannes Classics at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 12 to 23, 2026. After that, Warner Bros. Clockwork will release the film in select North American theaters for an exclusive one-week engagement beginning October 16 — perfectly timed for Halloween season — with an international rollout to follow, including a UK release in partnership with the British Film Institute.

This isn’t just a restoration. It’s the first time Russell’s actual vision has ever been officially and publicly available. As the press release puts it, this is “the first publicly released version of the film as intended by the filmmaker.”

The Film That Shocked the World — and Then Disappeared

Released in 1971 and produced by Warner Bros., The Devils follows Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), a Catholic priest in 17th-century France whose unorthodox views on sex and religion earn him a devoted following — and a dangerous enemy. When the power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu, played by Christopher Logue, decides Grandier must be destroyed to consolidate control over France, he engineers a campaign to brand the priest a satanist. The accusations are fueled in large part by Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave), a sexually obsessed nun whose fixation on Grandier curdles into something far darker.

Russell, the Oscar-nominated director behind Tommy, Women in Love, and Altered States, based the film on John Whiting’s 1960 play and Aldous Huxley’s 1952 novel The Devils of Loudun — but he pushed the material into territory that neither source had dared. The graphic sexual content and brutal violence were so extreme that the film could only be released after Russell made significant cuts, and even then it was slapped with an X rating in both the US and the UK. In several countries, it was banned outright.

What audiences have had access to ever since is a compromised version. The restored cut running 1 hour and 54 minutes is substantially longer than any edition fans have been stuck with for years.

How the Restoration Came Together

The definitive cut of The Devils was originally reconstructed back in 2004 under the direct supervision of Ken Russell himself and editor Michael Bradsell, with collaboration from film critic Mark Kermode and director Paul Joyce. Now, that reconstruction has been brought into the 4K era: picture restoration was completed using the original camera negative at WB Water Tower Color, while audio was restored from original composite 35mm mag film at WB Sound, transferred at 96kHz, with additional original film elements used where needed.

The film’s technical pedigree is formidable. Cinematography was handled by Academy Award-winning DP David Watkin, whose later credits include Out of Africa and Chariots of Fire. Editing was by Michael Bradsell, known for Local Hero and Jabberwocky. And in what turned out to be his feature film debut, visual artist Derek Jarman served as production designer — years before he became one of the most significant queer filmmakers of the late 20th century.

The film also features Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian, Gemma Jones, Murray Melvin, Michael Gothard, Georgina Hale, and Brian Murphy in supporting roles.

Despite its troubled release history, The Devils won Best Director honors at both the 33rd Venice International Film Festival and from the U.S. National Board of Review. Its reputation has only grown in the decades since — championed by filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro and critic Mark Kermode, who was instrumental in keeping the film’s legacy alive long before this restoration was possible. (Del Toro’s own Pan’s Labyrinth is also screening in Cannes Classics this year, in what is shaping up to be a remarkable sidebar.)

The Label Behind the Release

The Devils marks the first repertory release from Warner Bros. Clockwork, the new specialized label run by Neon veteran Christian Parkes. Clockwork made its initial splash at CinemaCon when it announced that its first original production would be Sean Baker’s upcoming sex comedy Ti Amo! — and now, with this restoration, the label is making an equally bold statement about its commitment to the studio’s back catalog.

For fans who’ve spent years hunting down degraded copies or reading about scenes they’ve never been able to legally watch, the theatrical run can’t come soon enough. Whether a physical media release follows remains an open question — but for now, October 16 is the date to circle.