The Devils — Ken Russell's 1971 Cult Horror Film 

Released in July 1971, The Devils remains one of the most controversial, visually extraordinary, and gloriously excessive films ever made.

Directed by the wonderfully unhinged Ken Russell, the film starred Oliver Reed as Father Urbain Grandier, a charismatic 17th-century French priest whose good looks, sexual adventures, and refusal to obey the authorities eventually land him in some very serious trouble.

And then there's Vanessa Redgrave as Sister Jeanne, a sexually repressed, hunchbacked nun who develops a rather unhealthy obsession with the handsome priest.

When Grandier rejects her advances, Sister Jeanne accuses him of witchcraft, setting off a spectacular wave of religious hysteria involving possessed nuns, public exorcisms, political conspiracies, and some of the most outrageous behavior ever committed to film.

Based on Aldous Huxley's 1952 book The Devils of Loudun and a play by John Whiting, the film drew inspiration from the real-life Loudun possessions of 1630s France, when a group of Ursuline nuns claimed to have been possessed by demons.

The scandal eventually led to Grandier's trial and execution in 1634, although the entire affair had as much to do with religious persecution and political power as it did with anything supernatural.

But Russell wasn't particularly interested in making a polite little costume drama.

Working with future filmmaker and queer cinema icon Derek Jarman, who designed the film's extraordinary sets, Russell created a nightmarish world of stark white architecture, elaborate costumes, grotesque religious imagery, and enough sexual repression to make a Catholic boarding school look like a swingers' convention.

Naturally, the censors went absolutely bananas.

Both the British Board of Film Censors and Warner Bros. demanded cuts before the film could be released. Particularly controversial was the notorious "Rape of Christ" sequence, featuring a convent full of hysterical nuns behaving in ways that would have sent the Vatican into cardiac arrest.

The film received an X rating in Britain, while additional cuts were made to secure an American R rating.

Religious organizations protested, critics argued, and some local authorities refused to allow the film to be shown.

All of which, of course, made people want to see it even more.

Despite the controversy, The Devils developed a devoted cult following and became one of the defining works of Russell's career. Its combination of religious satire, sexual politics, astonishing imagery, and criticism of authoritarian power made it far more than just another exploitation movie about naughty nuns.

For decades, the film's censorship history made it notoriously difficult to see in its intended form. In 2026, a major restoration finally brought back previously suppressed footage, giving audiences a chance to experience a more complete version of Russell's outrageous masterpiece.

More than half a century after its release, The Devils remains a remarkable achievement in cult cinema, a film that's equal parts historical nightmare, political satire, religious horror, and gloriously over-the-top 1970s filmmaking.