Director Michael Winterbottom’s film adaptation of the Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel The Killer Inside Me caused plenty of panties to bunch up at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The serial-killer drama triggered disgust and anger among many female viewers, leading to public outcries (one woman yelled “How dare you” at Winterbottom during the premiere’s Q&A) and walkouts, including one by star Jessica Alba (her reps claim she had a flight to catch).

The film’s controversial scenes include rough sex and raw, prolonged violence against its female leads, namely Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba, the latter of which gets spanked with a belt and later punched in the face repeatedly. Casey Affleck plays perverted, homicidal maniac-with-a-badge Lou Ford. To see the offending scenes for yourself, click here.

In an interview with Anne Thompson, Winterbottom states:

The violence is shocking in the book and it’s shocking in the film. It’s not a police procedural. The story is being told by someone who’s crazy. The story is the way he tells it and sees it, not the way it happened. The film has no sense of pleasure in the violence.

The audience didn’t understand that when they watch this shocking violence, Casey is not the hero where the audience gets off on it. It should be shocking and brutal.

No word yet on whether The Killer Inside Me has scored a distribution deal.