SHANNON’S DRIVE-IN: THE DEVILS

Shannon explores Ken Russell’s The Devils, one of the most controversial movies ever made.

A 17^th-century Catholic priest is put on trial for witchcraft in a political power grab.

Director: Ken Russell

Writer: Ken Russell, based on the book The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley

Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Reed, Dudley Sutton, Gemma Jones

Make no mistake, Ken Russell’s The Devils is a LOT of movie. I almost feel like I’m being disingenuous in reviewing this after only one viewing. In reality, The Devils requires at least two or three watches in order to fully grasp everything about it. The first watch is so chaotic and overwhelming it’s easy to miss just how layered and important it really is as a film.

Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed) is our central character, a popular priest who is sinning behind the scenes while also stopping the demolition of the city’s walls and making the nuns go wild, including one particular nun, Sister Jeanne des Agnes (Vanessa Redgrave). As Grandier tries to reform and get away from his sinful lifestyle, a plot is formed by Baron Jean du Laubardemont (Dudley Sutton) and Canon Jean Mignon (Murray Melvin) to exploit his transgressions by using Sister Agnes’s confessions against him, accusing him of being in league with the devil. Eventually an exorcism of all the nuns happens and all hell breaks loose.

Describing a movie is not the same as experiencing it for yourself, and damn, this is definitely a case of that dialed up to eleven. Upon a first watch, the plot becomes secondary to the spectacle: grandiose sets and costumes, bizarre scenes, and a hell of a lot of horny nuns are on display. But delving into the plot, you get a story of religious manipulation by people in power, using others as scapegoats for political gains. As stated in the beginning of the film, the goal is to unite church and state, bringing in the unnerving realization of how religious fascism operates in government today. Religion guides the hand in how laws are made and the similarity of both the film and real life of how people are manipulated in order to achieve success is not lost. Politicians can point the finger at the unholy and have the masses believe them while also setting the tone for which people are the pious ones while their own hypocrisy goes unchecked.

The control that religion has on the characters of the film leads to complicated situations. Nuns aren’t really there because they want to be, but because, as women, they really have no other options for themselves. They are manipulated into thinking Granier is using witchcraft on them and that they are possessed. Their sexual repression explodes after the exorcisms, which leads to the infamous “Rape of Christ” scene (finally added into the film after being lost for years). They are a crazed horde, tearing down a crucifix with a wooden Jesus and ravaging it. Meanwhile, there’s a crowd there watching all of this for entertainment (as they do with an execution at the end), another relevant theme of how far our society goes to exploit these things for our own amusement. Everything is political spectacle as the city is ravaged by a plague to distract the masses from the gloom and doom (flashbacks of 2020’s Covid pandemic come forth!).

The story is based on a true historical incident which took place in the small town of Loudun, France in 1632. Aldous Huxley recounted the events in his 1952 book The Devils of Loudun.

Ken Russell’s filmmaking is bombastic and overwhelming, not shying away from disturbing imagery as well as the absurd. The loudness makes the peaceful moments seem quieter, giving a reprieve until the next spectacle. A lot of that spectacle is enhanced by production designer Derek Jarman. The sets evoke a modernity not found in most movies of that time period, leading us to be in awe of while also feeling a relationship to the sets. The movie is theater, in both look and themes, driving home the topics of both entertainment and manipulation.

As for the two leads, Oliver Reed is a different kind of priest, more swagger than savior, hunky and magnetic, making it easy to believe he has a fan club of salivating nuns behind him. Yet there’s some stoicism and dignity behind his performance as well. Vanessa Redgrave is the head of the convent, cold and repressed in her demeanor. She provides a very striking image with her head eternally askew due to her hunched back.

The Devils was first released in a very censored form in both the U.S. and U.K. in 1971. Before Ken Russell passed away in 2011, he had been very skeptical the film would be released in its original form. Thanks to film critic Mark Kermode finding the missing scenes to restore to the film, there’s now been a recent re-release by Warner Brothers of the NC-17 cut to theaters, which has been causing hype amongst film fans and the original one-week run of the re-release has been extended for an additional week due to its success.

As controversial as it is, The Devils is about blasphemy rather than being blasphemous itself. The sheer spectacle can distract and overwhelm a first-time viewer, but once you get to the meat of the film, it serves to enhance the story by use of crazy and disturbing imagery being flung at you. Meaning lies beneath the mask of madness, but the force of the chaos is the thing that draws you in; it’s the exploring of the layers that keeps you intrigued. It’s less about shock value and more about fearlessness in drawing you into an unforgettable film-going experience.

Shannon Grant is a writer, performer, adventurer, and horned cryptid living in the wilds of upstate New York. Her work can be found in many small press anthologies such as A Guide to Useless Sidekicks, Catskill Chaos, and The Lizzie Borden House Anthology. She is currently at work on a vampire novella. When not writing, she can be found haunting drive-in movie theaters, karaoke bars, and looking for ghosts in the woods.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing, nor do the views or opinions of Crystal Lake necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or its staff. Thank you for understanding.