Ken Russell’s The Devils Gets 4K, NC-17 Release from Warner Bros.

Fifty-five years after its original release, director Ken Russell’s historical psychological horror-drama film The Devils is being released as the filmmaker intended: uncensored and uncut. A new 4K restoration of Ken Russell’s The Devils is coming to movie theaters in October, and it will carry an NC-17 rating due to its graphic portrayal of violence and sex.

This marks the first time that Warner Bros. has released an NC-17-rated film. The company is doing so under its relatively young Clockwork imprint. A new trailer for Ken Russell’s The Devils reveals what viewers can expect from the director’s cut of the film, though viewers should take heed that the trailer’s presentation is extremely intense.

What’s new in Ken Russell’s The Devils rerelease

Warner Bros. Clockwork’s new trailer for the film includes never-before-seen footage of the 4K restoration of Ken Russell’s The Devils. It’s a holy grail for film lovers, including one prominent writer-director: Guillermo del Toro.

“The restoration of the material is like cleaning the Sistine Chapel with saliva,” del Toro said, poetically. “It is insane, the epic size of the film. I mean, I’ve seen it on the big screen in Telluride at a theater – but I’ve never seen the movie until I saw this restoration.”

Ken Russell’s The Devils is a dramatized account of 17th century Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier, who is accused of witchcraft after the Loudun possessions. The film stars Oliver Reed as Grandier and Vanessa Redgrave as Sister Jeanne des Anges, a sexually repressed nun who incites the accusations. Russell’s film is based on Aldous Huxley’s non-fiction book The Devils of Loudun and John Whiting’s play The Devils. Originally released in 1971, The Devils the film received an X rating and was banned in several countries.

Hilariously, Warner Bros. managed to include one of the nuns from Ken Russell’s The Devils in 2021’s Space Jam: A New Legacy. Here she is, standing next to Mr. Freeze from Batman & Robin, Pennywise from It, and a flying monkey from The Wizard of Oz.

Warner Bros. Clockwork will screen Ken Russell’s The Devils in North American theaters on Oct. 16 for an exclusive one-week engagement with select 35 mm screenings, followed by a U.K. release on Oct. 30.