Marianna Palka saw her indie thriller Bitch world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this past January.

Now, MPI Media Group acquired the film about a woman snaps under crushing life pressures and assumes the psyche of a vicious dog. Her philandering, absentee husband is forced to become reacquainted with his four children and sister-in-law as they attempt to keep the family together during this bizarre crisis. Jason Ritter, Jaime King, Marianna Palka, Brighton Sharbino, Rio Mangini, and Kingston Foster star.

Dark Sky Films will distribute later in 2017.

Our own Fred Topel despised the film, calling it “a doggone piece of crap,” while Ben Larned absolutely adored it, declaring it “an insane, hilarious, and heartfelt dark comedy.”

Jason Ritter and Brighton Sharbino appear in Bitch by Marianna Palka, an official selection of the Midnight program at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. © 2016 Sundance Institute | photo by Armando Salas.

Jill, a lonely, distraught housewife with four unruly children, paces on her dining room table with a belt around her neck, contemplating a desperate end to her wretchedness. Her husband, Bill, focused on his identity as breadwinner and an affair with a lusty co-worker, is as oblivious to Jill’s growing terror that she will do something destructive as he is to the panic at his unraveling company. Meanwhile, dogs bark and howl through the night, as one persistent mutt continually stalks the family’s yard. When Jill’s psyche finally breaks, she takes on a vicious new canine persona.

Marianna Palka (returning to the Festival after 2008’s Good Dick) writes, directs, and stars in this provocative film. She balances a whip-smart, deeply unsettling take on the horrors of a crumbling nuclear family with a palpable sensitivity for her character’s plight and perfectly timed comedic flourishes. Jason Ritter delivers a beautifully tragicomic performance as Bill, who’s transformed by bizarre crisis from an indifferent hound of a man entirely untethered from his family to their unexpected emotional anchor.