Ken Russel's film of The Devils - One of the greatest horror films you've never seen

[BrunoMattei]

How to sum this one up? This is one of the greatest surreal, extreme, certainly blasphemous horror films ever. Directed by the late great Ken Russel and starring the late great drunken genius Oliver Reed. The Devil's concerns a nunnery gone mad, the headmistress (Vanessa Redgrave) is infatuated with the priest (Oliver Reed) that protects the town from the monarchy and corrupt church from razing the town. The headmistress goes insane with her obsession and it spirals to pure, beautiful, mad horror as only Ken Russel can do.

This film has never officially been released uncut. There have been sporadic releases here and there overseas. Someone at Warner Bros. is obviously trying to suppress it. A fan-edit has been released that re-incorporates the cut footage, taken from a TV broadcast, but it's low quality. I've created this thread because supposedly Criterion has the rights and will be releasing it in October. We shall see.

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

I love the film but the lack of a definitive bluray version is very vexing. It's one of those things that will fuck you up if you see as a kid, but in a symbolic rather than trumatising way. It's highly recommended to adventurous horror fans, almost necessary to see after exploring more common recommendations such as Possession, Salo, etc, although Russell's brand of psychedelia could turn some off, though I'd recommend pushing through it (ditto Lair of the White Worm, which is not forgotten masterpiece, but is something individual and interesting).

 

[BrunoMattei]

I never got into Lair of the White Worm but I love Altered States.

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

I need some type of in with Altered States, it's never fully connected (although it's much better than Lair, which is schlock). It's especially strange as I like Cronenberg and this is one of the only films you could say is almost cynically similar to his style. I'm sure it'll connect eventually. If you have any affinity with espionage genre, Ken makes a guest appearance in The Russia House (unreasonably overlooked IMO) as an actor, that is really cute (sorry about derailing hehe).

 

[Dom Cruise]

I've always been a fan of Ken Russell's Tommy.

 

[Frank D'arbo]

I will sacrifice my first born for the restoration to get a proper release

and where did you get the info on Criterion might be releasing it?

 

[BrunoMattei]

I will sacrifice my first born for the restoration to get a proper release

and where did you get the info on Criterion might be releasing it?

I saw it on a Twitter account of a guy who has connections.

 

[Frank D'arbo]

I saw it on a Twitter account of a guy who has connections.

I believe ya.

They also said Until The End of the World would never get its proper 5+ hour version released despite many companies trying to release it for the last 20 years, and it just got announced last week for The Criterion Collection. (God that movie had a fantastic soundtrack)

 

[dopedodo]

I've always been a fan of Ken Russell's Tommy.

Me too. He did cast Oliver Reed a lot...

 

[Dom Cruise]

I forgot to mention I've also seen The Lair of The White Worm, which is pretty entertaining as well.

Definitely need to watch more of his films.

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

Gothic or Altered States are definitely worth a check for fans of the genres, Gothic in particular is quite silly in the vein of Lair.

They also said Until The End of the World would never get its proper 5+ hour version released despite many companies trying to release it for the last 20 years, and it just got announced last week for The Criterion Collection. (God that movie had a fantastic soundtrack)

Holy fuck, I've been sitting on a shitty DVD rip of this for ages wishing for what might be.

 

[Frank D'arbo]

Holy fuck, I've been sitting on a shitty DVD rip of this for ages wishing for what might be.

Comes out in December

Going to be the first time the films been released on DVD here, since Warner Bros only bothered to release it on VHS

Despite the huge amount of contributors to the soundtrack (I know you know, but this is for anyone else reading), like R.E.M, Talking Heads (their final song ever before breaking up), Patti Smith, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Elvis Costello, Depeche Mode, and tons of others

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

Well, the Until the end of the World bluray did drop (mine was a Studio Canal German edition, not Criterion), and it looks fucking fantastic from a quick skip-through. Now to find the time and patience for a 5 hour film

(To tie it into Russell... I guess it has William Hurt in it, like Altered States. I love pretty much everything he did in the 80s.)

 

[Gordon Cole]

Ken Russell is a director I've been meaning to take a deeper dive into for the longest time. And finding out that Derek Jarman was involved as a production designer has piqued my interest.

I believe ya.

They also said Until The End of the World would never get its proper 5+ hour version released despite many companies trying to release it for the last 20 years, and it just got announced last week for The Criterion Collection. (God that movie had a fantastic soundtrack)

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Now I know what I want for Christmas.