- Director
- Ken Russell
- Year
- 1971
- Country
- UK
- Runtime
- 111 min
Also released as
- Ken Russell's Film of The Devils
- Οι Δαιμονισμένες
- I Diavoli
- The Devils
- Les Diables
- Djevlene
Filed under
The Devils
Ken Russell's best film, cut in every territory it has ever played, and still not properly released.
Based on a real case, the Loudun possessions of 1634, and on Aldous Huxley's book about it. Russell's argument is that the possession was political theatre from the first day: a hunchbacked nun with an obsession, a priest who was politically inconvenient, and a state that needed the town's fortifications pulled down.
Derek Jarman designed the sets, which are white tile and look like a hospital rather than a cathedral, and are the reason the film still looks modern. Oliver Reed is extraordinary in it and thought so too.
Warner has never released the full version. The most complete cut anybody has assembled runs 111 minutes and exists because a BFI curator found the trims in a vault.
Banned, seized, prosecuted
Elsewhere
- UK cut · BBFC · 1971 onward. Cut on every UK release it has ever had. Warner has still not issued the complete film; the most complete assembly runs 111 minutes and exists because a BFI curator located the trims in a vault.
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you will have to defend.
Your call
Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
No legal stream, rental or disc found in the regions we check. For a lot of these that is the normal state of affairs.
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, a plot detail, or working out which cut you are holding.
Adjacent
WATCHobscureHellbender
Made by one family during lockdown for almost nothing, and it looks better than films with fifty times the budget.
WATCHobscureAttachment
A Danish-Jewish folk horror about a dybbuk, a mother, and a relationship the mother will not permit.
obscureDon't Go Near the Park
Cursed cave dwellers from 12,000 BC eating people in modern Los Angeles. Incoherent throughout.
WATCHcultEvilspeak
Clint Howard, a military academy, a computer and a lot of pigs. Better than it has any right to be.
WATCHcultA Dark Song
A grieving mother and an occultist doing a months-long ritual properly. The tedium is deliberate.
WATCHcultIncantation
A Taiwanese found-footage film built around a curse the film itself tries to pass to you.