Few films are as legendary as The Devils, Ken Russell’s 1971’s adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun, starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. Feverish and hallucinatory (in the best possible sense of the word), it remains one of the most disturbing and controversial films ever released by a major distributor (Warner Brothers, in this case).

Tragically, the film is currently only available as a bootleg DVD, and the chances of it seeing a legitimate release are slim to none. But at least you can easily get a sense of the film by YouTubing the 2004 British documentary Hell on Earth, a fascinating account of the making of The Devils that includes revealing interviews with cast and crew, as well as the restored “rape of Christ” sequence, which was censored by understandably mortified British censors.

Seeing The Devils for the first time is akin to being pummeled in the solar plexus by Muhammad Ali while participating in a week-long African shamanic ritual. The movie is an account of a little-known historical incident (Father Grandier’s 1634 trial and execution at the stake for consorting with Satan), but Russell is more interested in capturing the social and political climate of the times through a nonstop barrage of disturbing imagery. It’s a movie that seems to have escaped as opposed to being organically created, an exacting examination into the nature of power and masculine fear and repression of the feminine. It’s a masterpiece of dangerous imagery and ideas.

The documentary recalls the (relative) creative freedom of corporate filmmaking in the early 1970s and how this seemingly impossible subject matter even got made. Ken Russell recalls sneaking the film past uninterested executives and their horror at viewing the finished product. Behind-the-scenes footage provides a fascinating glimpse into the film’s production design (courtesy of a youthful Derek Jarman) and the unorthodox creative vision of Ken Russell, who at that time was an A-list director responsible for numerous box-office triumphs.

The highlight of Hell on Earth is the aforementioned uncut seven-minute “rape of Christ” sequence. Once thought to be forever lost, the footage was miraculously located in a box of discarded trims and screened to Russell and cast members for the first time. When viewed in its entirety, the scene is a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of mass sexual and religious hysteria that undoubtedly would still be censored today. (Russell’s reaction, meanwhile, is surprisingly blasé.)

In an age where “shock” is a tool for soulless filmmakers to cynically attain greater financial gains, it’s revelatory to see a 40-year-old film that disturbs and challenges the viewer in a manner that few films made today could even dream of.

Watch Hell on Earth online at www.youtube.com.