A newly restored director's cut of Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils has begun re-release screenings, including a 35mm presentation at the Music Box and showings tied to repertory programs such as IFC Center's The Gospel According to Ken Russell and a Dumpster Raccoon Cinema event at the Revue Cinema. Viewers at recent screenings, including one at the River Oaks, described the restoration as revelatory, praising the recovered footage, production design, and Oliver Reed's performance. Several attendees and reviewers called the complete, uncut version more intense and timely, drawing explicit parallels between the film's themes and contemporary Christofascist currents. The re-release has prompted renewed advocacy for wider exhibition of Russell's work, with audiences saying they plan to seek additional Russell films after seeing The Devils. Organizers continue to schedule showings this Halloween season, bringing the restored cut back into cinemas decades after its original release.
![The Devils is a 1971 historical psychological horror-drama film written, produced and directed by Ken Russell, and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed.[3] A dramatised historical account of the fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest accused of witchcraft after the possessions in Loudun, France, the plot also focuses on Sister Jeanne des Anges, a sexually repressed nun who incites the accusations.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:loc6aznxtsyp3bxbrvdulhei/bafkreicfkkvricsgw27qwkulhqfpp26xi7zr2v6o3ck7l7zigunvhzjhzu)
