Here’s your first look at the new 4K uncensored restoration of Ken Russell’s The Devils. 

Warner Bros.’s new boutique label, Clockwork, will release the film in cinemas on October 16. The release will be the first time Russell’s complete version of The Devils will screen in cinemas. 

Starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed, the film tells the story of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Catholic priest who was burned at the stake over accusations of witchcraft. While the film was inspired by true events and pulled from previous takes on the story, including John Whiting’s 1960 stage play, Russell’s version is distinct and was condemned at the time by critics who believed it to be highly blasphemous.

The film was publicly criticized by the Vatican, which called for its debut screenings at the 1971 Venice Film Festival to be cancelled. Selected press on the Lido were shown the film, but the planned public viewing was canceled to avoid protests. Russell went on to win Best Director at Venice, but The Devils was later banned in Italy and several other territories. The film was released with an X rating in the UK and the U.S. after significant edits. Russell restored an uncut version of The Devils in 2004, and it was screened at the National Film Theatre in London, but never received a public release. 

The new complete version of The Devils debuted last month at Cannes. The screening was introduced by Russell’s widow, Elize, and British film critic Mark Kermode. Speaking to Deadline after the screening, Kermode revealed that the process of restoring The Devils began in January of this year, at a meeting in Berlin with Clockwork’s Christian Parkes and Spencer Collantes.

“Christian and Spencer walk in,” Kermode recalled, “and I go, ‘Right. It’s Warner Bros., so it’s either The Exorcist or The Devils” — famously two of Kermode’s specialist subjects — “but I know for a fact that it’s not The Exorcist. So, what do you want to do with The Devils?’ They said, ‘We really want to do the Director’s Cut, and we think it’s happening.’ I was completely speechless.”

The Devils will next screen on a 35mm print at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna.

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