Nuns, nudity & blasphemy: Why ‘The Devils’ still shocks

The Devils returns to theaters this month in a restored 4K version that reinstates footage banned for decades. Audiences are once again confronting scenes of naked nuns, a crucifix used as a sexual object, and a priest burned alive while the church and state watch. The shocks feel current because the film’s core argument about power and repression has not gone away.

Restored print lands in 2026

Warner Bros. Clockwork completed the new restoration from the original camera negative. The version now playing in limited release includes the infamous “Rape of Christ” sequence that distributors removed in 1971. Mark Kermode’s years-long search for the missing reels finally paid off, and the film opens with an NC-17 rating.

Box-office numbers surprised distributors. The first weekend gross reached 1.74 million dollars across 350 screens, a strong per-theater average for a 55-year-old title. Theater chains extended the run by two weeks, and a wider rollout is already in discussion.

Vanessa Redgrave attended the London premiere. She had not seen the complete cut since production. Her presence underscored how few living participants remain to speak for the film’s original intentions.

Director’s stated purpose

Ken Russell always insisted The Devils was a political film. He described it as an examination of state brainwashing and institutional control rather than an exercise in titillation. At the time he was a practicing Catholic who claimed the project had Jesuit approval.

Russell defended the explicit imagery in letters to the British Board of Film Classification. He argued that showing Christ debased was necessary to demonstrate how authorities weaponize blasphemy for political ends. The board still demanded cuts.

Guillermo del Toro later called the original censorship “a true act of censorship.” That judgment has gained traction as restored footage circulates online and younger viewers encounter the film for the first time.

Production design and tone

Derek Jarman’s sets gave the film its stark, white-box aesthetic that still registers as modern. The clean lines and minimal color palette throw the nudity and violence into sharper relief than period clutter would have allowed.

Russell staged the mass exorcisms as theatrical spectacles rather than solemn rites. The camera lingers on writhing bodies and public humiliation, turning the viewer into another spectator in the town square.

The contrast between the film’s visual elegance and its subject matter is deliberate. Russell wanted the audience to feel complicit in the voyeurism that the story condemns.

Oliver Reed’s central performance

Oliver Reed plays Urbain Grandier as a man who knows his libertinism will eventually be used against him. His refusal to bend makes the eventual torture feel inevitable rather than sensational.

Reed’s physical presence anchors the film’s most explicit sequences. He never appears to be performing for the camera; the nudity registers as another element of his character’s defiance.

Contemporary interviews show Reed understood the film’s intent. He told one reporter that the project was never meant to be a “pretty Christian film” and described the characters as “twisted people” caught in larger systems.

Vanessa Redgrave’s Sister Jeanne

Redgrave’s hunchbacked, sexually repressed nun supplies the personal obsession that drives the political plot. Her performance turns private fantasy into public accusation without softening the character’s cruelty.

The restored footage includes moments previously cut for U.S. distribution. Redgrave’s physical commitment remains startling; she has said the role required her to confront aspects of repression she had not previously examined on screen.

Her attendance at the 2026 screenings gave new audiences a direct link to the original production. She answered questions about the film’s reception in 1971 and its relevance to current debates over religious authority.

Censorship battles then and now

The original British X certificate came only after multiple cuts. Several local councils banned the film outright. In the United States, pubic hair had to be airbrushed from prints to secure an R rating.

The Vatican condemned the film without screening it. Russell’s claim that the project had Jesuit support did little to quiet official outrage once the excised footage began circulating in bootleg form.

Today the NC-17 rating functions more as marketing than barrier. Audiences who once had to seek out 16-millimeter prints can now buy tickets in multiplexes, shifting the conversation from whether the film should exist to how its images should be read.

Political themes in context

The Devils frames witchcraft accusations as tools for eliminating a priest who resists Cardinal Richelieu’s centralizing agenda. The sexual hysteria among the nuns becomes state-sponsored theater rather than spontaneous religious experience.

Russell’s Catholic background informs the critique. He presents blasphemy as a weapon authorities deploy when legal arguments fail, a pattern he saw repeating in contemporary politics.

Current viewers note parallels with ongoing conflicts between religious institutions and individual autonomy. The film’s argument that sexual repression can be politically useful lands differently in an era of renewed culture-war legislation.

Media and audience response

Initial reviews split between critics who praised the film’s formal control and those who focused on its explicit content. The famous live-television confrontation between Russell and critic Alexander Walker remains a touchstone for how publicity can amplify a film’s notoriety.

Online discussion since the restoration has centered less on shock value and more on the film’s structural clarity. Viewers who expected pure exploitation report surprise at how tightly the political argument holds together.

Academic programs that once screened only excerpts now program the full cut. Loyola University Chicago lists The Devils among titles taught as examples of Catholic cinema, a designation that would have surprised 1971 distributors.

Future circulation plans

Warner Bros. has not yet announced a home-video release date for the 4K restoration. Theatrical extension suggests the studio is testing demand before committing to wider physical-media distribution.

Festival programmers are already booking the film for 2027 retrospectives. Its combination of restored imagery and documented censorship history makes it a natural centerpiece for programs examining 1970s boundaries.

The question now is whether the restored version will settle into standard repertory rotation or remain a limited-run event. Early numbers indicate sustained interest beyond the initial curiosity of cult-film completists.

Why the shocks persist

The Devils continues to unsettle because it refuses to separate sexual hysteria from institutional power. The nudity and blasphemy are not decorative; they are the mechanism through which the state converts private obsession into public execution. Audiences still recognize the pattern.