Unrated version of Ken Russell’s ‘The Devils’ is now streaming on Shudder
What to see something really crazy? As of today, subscribers to the horror streaming service Shudder can watch director Ken Russell’s 1971 film The Devils, one of the most controversial movies ever made. Moreover, Shudder is streaming the longest surviving version of a film, which has been the victim of substantial cuts over the years. This iteration of the movie is also unrated.
The Devils stars the late Oliver Reed as Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest who is accused of witchcraft. The legendary Vanessa Redgrave plays a sexually repressed nun at the center of the accusations against Grandier. Russell’s other credits included Women in Love, the rock-opera Tommy, and Altered States.
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The film was controversial for its depictions of sex, violence, and Catholicism, but is widely regarded as a classic in many quarters. Diehard fans of the movie include Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro. “For me, this movie, every time I see it, I see it as powerful, as beautiful, as absolutely hysteric and absolutely as wild as the first time I saw it,” The Hollywood Reporter reported the filmmaker as saying in 2014.
Watch an exclusive, and verbally explicit, clip from The Devils, below.
The Devils is now available to stream on Shudder.