Critic's Pick: Ken Russell's 'The Devils'

The sheer difficulty of finding Ken Russell’s The Devils has only increased its notoriety. For years, the 17th-century possession horror movie based on a real-life case in a French convent has been unavailable to watch in its entirety, with censored cuts making brief appearances on home media and streaming services. Lore abounds about The Devils: It received an X rating in the U.S. and U.K. and a zero-star rating from Roger Ebert upon its release, and was allegedly banned in Finland until 2001. Now a new 35 mm restoration of the uncut version of the film is being released, and it will screen at the Belcourt for a week as part of the theater’s Shocktober horror lineup and the kickoff for repertory series Ken Russell x4. Can’t wait? Try out Russell’s 1988 cult classic The Lair of the White Worm in the meantime; it also dips into psychosexual campy nun horror.

Oct. 15-22 at the Belcourt

2102 Belcourt Ave.