More than five decades after its original release, a piece of horror history is getting its day in the sun at the box office. Ken Russell’s The Devils has arrived in all of its uncut glory with Warner Bros. unearthing the full, NC-17 version of the 1971 classic. Now, as something of a victory lap, the bloody, blasphemous new version of the genre favorite has done well for itself in theaters on a crowded weekend.
See also: The True Story That Inspired Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS
While the new Street Fighter movie topped the charts with $31 million domestically, The Devils also made its way onto 350 screens after doing the festival rounds. It pulled in $1.6 million. Even though it didn’t crack the top ten, that made for a solid per-screen average close to $4,700. That was better than most of the other releases on the charts this week. That could be viewed as a bit of poetic justice.
Russell’s director’s cut of The Devils is a rather controversial film. Or at least it was back in its day. Due to its depictions of sex and violence against the backdrop of religion, it’s not terribly hard to see why. So, Russell’s cut was butchered en route to theaters. No, 55 years after that all went down, the original director’s cut has been released, restored and even got a splashy theatrical release just before Halloween. That feels right.
The movie takes place in 17th-century France and centers on Father Grandier (Oliver Reed), a priest whose unorthodox views on sex and religion garners a passionate following of nuns. This includes the sexually obsessed Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). When Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) realizes he has to eliminate Grandier to gain control of France, he portrays Grandier as a satanist and spearheads a public smear campaign to destroy the priest's reputation.
In other news, Whalefall also made its way to theaters over the weekend. It did so-so pulling in $8 million domestically and $9.5 million overseas for a $17.5 million debut. It was overshadowed by the acclaimed You Can See Everything ($15 million). It’s going to need a lot of help to justify its $60 million budget. Meanwhile, last weekend’s champion Other Mommy fell off a cliff, dropping 70% for an $8.3 million second frame. Even so, it’s coming up on $80 million globally and has already fully justified its $19 million budget.
Looking ahead, this upcoming weekend will see the release of DC’s R-rated body horror movie Clayface. Oddly enough, that’s going to be the big Halloween release this year, but DC doesn’t appear to be messing around with this one. October 30 sees the horror-tinged Christmas at the Kringles hit theaters to round out the month.
The Devils is in theaters now.
