Tuesday at Sundance, Gurinder Chadha premiered a new ghost story and Tucker & Dale got bought…kind of.

Gurinder Chadha’s British-Indian Black Comedy Premieres, References Carrie
You may wonder why you’re reading about the latest film by Gurinder Chadha on FEARnet. Yes, she’s the lady who made Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice the latter of which, if you saw it, is plenty scary. (Not!) Yesterday, Chadha returned to Sundance with her latest film, the black comedy It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, about an overzealous British-Punjabi mother who really wants her adult daughter to get married. So much so that she will murder anyone who gets in the way, a la Serial Mom!

The story features ghosts, murder, and a lightheartedly macabre supernatural plot – oh yes, and Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) from Heroes, which was key to the film earning an endorsement on the official Twitter of the ladies mag Marie Claire. (According to that and other Tweets, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife also references Carrie.) Likewise, most of the enthusiastic Twitter reactions following Tuesday’s screening came from the fairer sex, while LA Times reporter Steven Zeitchik was a little less impressed:

 “If only this silly supernatural stew was more like Slumdog Millionaire and less like, um, High Spirits.” - Steven Zeitchik  

It’s A Wonderful Afterlife is currently without U.S. distribution.

Download Songs from The Violent Kind Soundtrack
Yesterday we told you about the Sundance premiere of The Violent Kind, a rockabilly horror flick from directing duo The Butcher Brothers. Few reviews have hit the 'net since its premiere, so while you wait for the first inkling of a critical reaction, turn up your speakers and give a listen to two original songs featured on the film’s soundtrack, courtesy of Atlanta rock ‘n rollers Death on Two Wheels.  For free! If you like what you hear, you can buy their entire debut album, Separation of Church & State, for $5 here.

Tucker & Dale Landed Canadian Deal; American Distribution In The Works?
Further proof that 2010 is a good year for horror at Sundance: the genre pics are landing deals left and right. While no confirmation has yet been made on the rumored deal-makings surrounding Vincenzo Natali’s Splice, another Park City at Midnight selection has made headway, if on a smaller scale than expected. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Maple Pictures, a Canadian distributor with ties to Lionsgate, has “acquired all domestic rights” to Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Eli Craig’s crowd-pleasing hillbilly comedy horror. (Lionsgate has already picked up one film so far, the Ryan Reynolds thriller Buried.) Screen Daily also notes that Tucker & Dale has nabbed distribution in France, Germany, and Scandinavia, with Australian and Spanish buys in negotiation.

Winterbottom Defends The Killer Inside Me
Lastly, more on the film SO violent it prompted walkouts this week at Sundance: Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me (AKA That Movie Where Jessica Alba Gets Her Face Punched Off). Sunday night, a woman stood up at the movie’s post-screening Q&A to demand to know how Winterbottom could make such a movie (after which she was booed out of the room), but she wasn’t alone in her reaction to admittedly brutal violence suffered by women in the film. (Listen to audio of the Q&A over at Screen Crave, where Mali Elfman recorded the historic moment.)

Since then, Winterbottom’s film has been the subject of debate; is gratuitous in its violence towards women, and is it too violent for a studio to buy, market, and release? Not exactly the kind of publicity a filmmaker wants, at least when a distribution deal is at stake. Over at Anne Thompson’s Thompson on Hollywood blog, Winterbottom got a chance to defend his film from its detractors: “The audience didn’t understand when they watch this shocking violence, Casey is not the hero where the audience gets off on it. It should be shocking and brutal.” Read more here.