PARACINEMA: TIGER STRIPES
The kids aren't alright in this Malaysian body horror
Spoilers for Tiger Stripes (2023)
Amanda Nell Eu’s feature debut Tiger Stripes is part of a history of films using menstruation and puberty as influences for body horror. We’ve seen this in genre classics like Carrie and Ginger Snaps, while the idea of sexual maturity in women has been an inspiration to filmmakers as far back as Cat People.
Set in Malaysia, we follow Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal), an 11-year-old girl who is the first in her class to get her period. Zaffan is shown from the start to be rebellious, flaunting the strict Islamic rules at school by removing her headscarf to recreate a dance from TikTok, and encouraging her friends Farah (Deena Ezral) and Mariam (Piqa) to join in.
When her period starts, however, the change is more extreme. Zaffan is haunted by images of glowing-eyed humans in the woods and begins to transform into something more bestial. In two particularly queasy body horror moments, she pulls her fingernails off – akin to Seth Brundle in The Fly – and uses tweezers to painfully remove what appears to be a whisker from her face.
While these moments are memorable, the greatest strength of Eu’s film is its integration of societal and religious misogyny into the story. Zaffan is first excused from prayers, something she is initially happy about (Islam has strict rules about what women can do on their periods, and women are instructed to perform ghusl afterwards – a full purification, which perpetuates the belief that menstruation is somehow dirty).
Yet this religious exclusion leads to Zaffan being ostracised by her friends. Farah, in particular, parrots many of the cruel myths that she would have heard from the men in her life about menstruation, calling Zaffan a slut and spreading rumours about her smell to the class. These emotional blows only speed up Zaffan’s transformation.
The performances from the young cast are incredible, with Zairizal showing a great emotional range. Eu is comfortable behind the camera, directing Tiger Stripes with a rare confidence for a debut. It isn’t a perfect film though, some of the effects have been hampered by the low budget – in particular, the two separate scenes of Zaffan scrambling up a tree – and these add little to the overall narrative, meaning they could have easily been cut.
Similarly, Eu’s decision to have the school affected by a spat of seizures makes thematic sense – menstruation will affect all the young women there after all – but it detracts from the central story. It could be argued that this builds on the internalised misogyny that informs the story, but these points had already been made to a greater extent earlier in the film.
If the second half of the film is weaker, it does at least include one highlight, the introduction of Dr Rahim (Shaheizy Sam). He is first called into the school to find out what ‘evil spirits’ are affecting the girls there but then is called out to exorcise Zaffan specifically. While not wholly original, it’s a genuinely funny sequence as he attempts to use trickery against something he is unequipped to deal with and manage his reputation and social media presence.
Tiger Stripes ends on a sweet-natured note, seeing Zaffan and Mariam reconnect. Eu shows them as young women again, highlighting that a natural change in their bodies does not negate the person that they were before. Between the strong script and direction, and the excellent performances, Tiger Stripes easily overcomes the few issues it has.
And it’s clear that the issues raised are pertinent because while Eu would win the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the version released in her home country of Malaysia was censored and subsequently disowned by the director.
Writer/Director: Amanda Nell Eu
Starring: Zafreen Zairizal, Deena Ezral, Piqa, Shaheizy Sam
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