The Devils

We Found The Devils...Now Guess Who They Are?

Ken Russell's 1971 film is based on the ground breaking book on sexual & mass hysteria, THE DEVILS OF LOUDON by Aldous Huxely.

Presented in a nightmarish, almost surrealist style, the film explores the notorious pseudo possession of the female (of course) inhabitants in a French nunnery. The charismatic (and emotionally disturbed & intellectually conflicted) priest who serves as Father Confessor to the nuns is accused of their sexual molestation & being in league with The Devil--who in turn has demonically possessed the nuns.

During this period of time, the French monarchy was in the process of consolidating its central hold over the scattered traditional, feudal areas that were de facto city-states. At the same time the Catholic Church under the control of the Machiavellian Cardinal Richelieu--who was consolidating his personal power and that of the Roman Catholic Church in France. He also spurred on barbaric pogroms against Protestants. The Loudon incident was a god send (devil send?) that could be exploited to achieve all these political & religious agendas. THE DEVILS graphically displays the demonic underpins of human society--including the foundation of Religion & State.

The film forthrightly suggests: We have met the devils & they are us.

Everything & everyone in the film are deliberately distorted & taken to extremes. The over all atmosphere in the picture is akin to being buried alive, confined in a nightmare & unable to breathe. Genuine historic events become completely exaggerated in the movie--but always maintain just enough historic authenticity to prevent the film from falling to the level of low comedy or parody.

There is humor of sorts in THE DEVILS, but it is of the dark & sinister kind. The viewer will respond, but it may be that the response is more for relief from the terror than anything else.

THE DEVILS is a cult classic that has been very difficult to locate on the open market. I agree with the other reviewers who were disappointed by the quality of the reproduction. However, since the film is so unusal & difficult to locate that I still give it a 4 Star rating. [NOTE 10/17/09 As a matter of fact I see that it is currently unavailable on Amazon. Maybe they will get a better quality DVD.]

Be careful of other versions. I viewed one that cut out most of the juicy bits--like the scene where Vanessa Redgrave as the sexually frustrated, hunchback Mother Superior combined prayer with eroticism. In the scene she is feverishly praying with her waist size rosary while peeking at her Confessor (Oliver Reed) through a vent in the nunnery walls--while he leads a funeral procession. She starts giggling & then suddenly & inexplicably stuffs the Crucifix into her mouth.

THE DEVILS is not for the squeamish or those who take offense at seeing religion parodied or by debased/satanic sexually charged imagery (whoosh!).

Needless to say, THE DEVILS is definitely NOT FOR THE KIDS.

It even shocked me--and that takes a lot these days. October 9, 2008

Please restore The Devils

The quality of this DVD is dreadful. Please, please, please restore and release the great films of Ken Russell such as The Devils, The Music Lovers and The Boyfriend. September 12, 2008

Finally available on DVD

Maybe its because I grew up in the 80's when, for the most part, all we had was VHS, because I don't understand what all the fuss is about. I rented this movie at my local scarecrow video on VHS and I cant tell the difference between the VHS and the DVD except for the DVD has the extra scenes and special features. In other words, I am very happy that I bought this DVD because now I OWN the movie...no...it wasn't digitally re-mastered but like I said..its just as good (actually better) than the VHS I rented. So the people who are complaining must have been expecting high def or something? If youv'e been waiting patiently for a watchable version of this movie to release on DVD this one is great. September 3, 2008

Decent transfer

I bought this DVD release of Kenneth Russell's "The Devils" before reading the other reviews on this page. You would have thought that the quality of this DVD was so bad that you might as well have watched a snowstorm. I'm very glad that I bought it. This is an unreleased movie. This means you are not going to get a transfer on the level of a professionally restored version. People who can't figure this out shouldn't order rare films and stick to Batman and The Mummy. I thought the transfer was great. It was not grainy at all, like a decent VHS. This DVD is absolutely worth purchasing until a fully restored version is released, which might not ever happen. I would buy it now while the price is still low! August 6, 2008

the devils

Anyone who saw the original will never forget the scene concerning Redgrave and the grate in the ground. Truly in bad taste, but it is missing from this release so how can this be advertised as "uncut"? August 4, 2008

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