CAT PERSON

TIGER STRIPES Puberty is a monster in this Cannes-winning body horror…

Zafreen Zairizal as Zaffan, who undergoes a strange physical transformation on hitting puberty

When is the first time we learn about shame and judgement?’ Amanda Nell Eu asks Teasers. ‘Your transformation from child to adult is a tough process.’ Think about puberty as a metaphor in horror and a few movies will spring to mind. Carrie, of course. Ginger Snaps. Teen Wolf, if you’re easily spooked.

Growing up on genre cinema, Malaysian filmmaker Nell Eu is well aware of the subject’s usually tragic form in scary movies. Knowing what’s already been done before may explain why her debut feature, Tiger Stripes, feels so fresh as a more light-hearted spin on teenage transformation: ‘It’s got a lot of my personality, which I guess is pink, punk, loud, fun and strange. I always joke that some people have oil paintings as films, while mine are made with crayons.’

Winner of the 2023 Grand Prize in the Critics’ Week section of Cannes, Tiger Stripes sees rebellious pre-teen Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) become ostracised by her classmates when she’s the first in her all-girls Muslim school’s peer group to get periods. ‘It was delving back into what it was like being a girl,’ says Nell Eu of the film’s character dynamics. ‘And what it’s like to have friends you love, fear, hate and respect at the same time.’

‘It’s got a lot of my personality’

AMANDA NELLEU

Seemingly encouraged by the inhuman labels thrown her way, Zaffan also undergoes a metamorphosis into a weretiger. For this, Nell Eu employs unusual practical effects over anything broaching realism. ‘Even stuff where she jumps up a tree, we literally pulled her up the tree, then sped it up,’ she says. ‘In terms of specific influences, there was the Japanese horror House. Bunch of girls, cats, blood: it ticks every box that I love!”