First off, this is a 5 star movie. Let’s get that out of the way now.
I have a tendency to keep myself as ignorant as possible about movies I know I will like until I am able to see them. This has been the case with Ken Russell’s famously sacrilegious masterpiece, The Devils, for at least 5 years. Sometimes I finally watch the movie and leave bored or disappointed, this was in no way the case with this film.
The Devil’s 2026 4K restoration is without a doubt one of the most impactful films I have ever had the pleasure to be assaulted by. It takes less than 5 minutes for you to be confronted with sights and sounds that announce themselves with a shameless intensity and purpose that you can’t help but be arrested by an authority far above any law or god.
The only things I knew before watching this movie was that it had been extremely censored and that this incredible restoration had managed to find the infamous middle section of the movie that was thought to have been lost to censor’s scissors. With this in mind, I had expected this film to be blood-soaked, but that would have been too simple for Ken Russell. The horror in this film is not a fanciful monster, but rather it is the unflinching look into the darkest depravities of humanity that all too often live within the pristine white walls of dogmatic faith.
This movie is relentless. Even in its quieter moments you feel the gears of human decay grinding away at the edifice of polite society. Some of the most disturbing lines are not shouted in moments of frenzy, but delivered with a cold deliberateness that cuts much deeper.
And, speaking of line deliveries, the acting in this movie is truly exceptional. Every performance, from the butcher that has 2 lines to Oliver Reed’s imposing and righteously self-deluded depiction of Father Urbain Grandier is breathtaking. But, of course, the actor that needs to be singled out above all others is Vanessa Redgrave as Sister Jeanne des Anges.
Without a doubt, the only horror performance that can compete is Isabelle Adjani as Anna in 1981’s Possession. And even then, I am inclined to say that Vanessa Redgrave surpasses even that legendary performance. In every line, from those that are screamed to those that are whispered, you feel an underlying madness that is truly disturbing and profound. If you have only seen stills of this film you might think you had an idea of how truly remarkable her performance is, but you need to see the films unravel in front of your eyes to truly understand how she embodies the human decay we hide behind our masks of civility day in and day out. She is truly a harbinger warning you that those things you hide within yourself do not stop rotting just because you try to look away.
I could go on and on. All I can say is that this film must be witnessed. The sets, the costuming, the acting, the music, the screenplay, every aspect of this film works together to create a maddening cacophony that is transcendent and disturbing in equal measures.
There are a lot of trigger warnings that you can go research, but the one I will mention is that if you have any fear of sacrilege this might not be the film for you. Ken Russell expertly uses the desecration of religious iconography as a blunt instrument to sculpt a work that is so much more than the sum of its parts. He is humble enough to understand what humans truly are beyond the shiny veneer of religion and civility and uses this blasphemous film to show it without fear or shame.
In the words of Father Urbain Grandier: “Call me vain and proud, the greatest sinner ever to walk God’s earth, but Satan’s boy I could never be. I haven’t the humility.”