Warner Bros. Clockwork has premiered a teaser trailer for the upcoming and uncensored 4K re-release of filmmaker Ken Russell’s infamous 1971 feature “The Devils”.
Seen as one of the most major restoration announcements in years, the release is one of the first from WBD’s new specialty label Warner Bros. Clockwork.
The film is an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s novel “The Devils of Loudon” and stars Oliver Reed as 17th-century rogue French Priest Urbain Grandier, who becomes the target of a political witch hunt.
Using the testimony of a mad hunchbacked nun (Vanessa Redgrave), the hysterical inquisitor Father Barre (Michael Gothard) uses torture and violence to whip up the entire city into a rabid carnal frenzy.
The film is famous for its graphic portrayal of violent and sexual content combined with religion. It originally received an X rating and was banned in several countries or heavily edited for exhibition in others.
To this day, it remains one of the most controversial films of all time, and even the edited versions are hard to find either on physical media or streaming.
This new 4K restoration is assembled from the original camera negative using the most complete edit of the film – the one he privately constructed and restored in 2004. It was screened at the National Film Theatre in London at the time, but never received a public release.
The result is being marketed as the “uncut and unfiltered theatrical experience that Russell always envisioned” and for the first time is presented in 4K.
The restoration will get a one-week global theatrical re-release on October 16th.
