BUFF 2026 Film Review - The Devils

Despite not being Australian or being particularly underground, Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971) made for a perfectly perverse opening to the 2026 Brunswick Underground Film Festival.

Beginning with a foreboding message that the following is based on a true story, the film follows the salacious Father Grandier in 1600’s France, accused of witchcraft by a local convent. While an official uncensored release is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, BUFF screened a frankensteined cut, splicing the original censored film with long lost VHS tapes of the more explicit scenes. And there is no shortage of explicit scenes.

In an unholy combination of Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Terry Gilliam, 1979) and A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971), Russell takes the viewer on a wild emotional rollercoaster of comedy, violence and eroticism, with characters using alligators in swordfights, conducting church approved torture, and a having a lot of church unapproved sex. Unusually for the genre, the story is quite clear and easy to follow, but is presented in such a way that engages and terrifies the audience for what will happen next.

Russell tactfully uses the backdrop of 17th century France and witch hunts to parallel the global political landscape of the mid-to-late 20th century, with ideas of McCarthyism and The Red Scare, comparing the philosophical motivations of then and now(ish). He presents the ludicrous and nonsensical irony of this persecution through a scene where two people analyse the vomit of a ‘possessed’ nun, noting what is supposedly the heart of a child (a piece of meat), semen (bile), and also a carrot.

The 70’s psychosexual surrealism is elevated from good to great by incredible physical performances, particularly from Vanessa Redgrave as Sister Jeanne, depicting a nun’s descent into possession and depravity, and Graham Armitage as a flamboyant and menacing King Louis XIII. The maximalist set design immerses the viewer entirely in the world of the film, with massive harsh white brick castles allowing for strong contrast with the deep reds of the characters’ clothes.

The film is a must watch for fans of the surreal and the strange, and a must skip for fans of the French monarchy.

8 sexually repressed nuns out of 10.

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The Devils screened as the opening night film of the 2026 Brunswick Underground Film Festival. For more info, click here.