Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival 2024 – While addressing the severe bodily changes its 11-year-old protagonist endures, Tiger Stripes is one of those films that bends and merges genres. It has elements of body horror, possession, comedy, and a coming-of-age narrative. It’s a sharp film and one heck of a feature debut by director Amanda Nell Eu.

Instead of the typical werewolf metaphor used in horror to address primal urges and physical changes, this Malaysian film’s protagonist Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) gradually turns into a tiger, with claws, tail, and all. However, it’s a slow, gradual process and quite a ride until full transformation. In fact, what this film does well is focus on the painful changes that Zaffan faces, from the moment she gets her period to a scene in class when she cramps up and pees herself because her teacher refuses to let her use the restroom. This poor kid just can’t catch a break. Even her mother shows little empathy.

Nell Eu, who co-wrote the script with Samm Haillay, spends plenty of time showing viewers Zaffan’s complicated and messy world. Once she hits puberty, she’s Othered by everyone at her school, especially her former childhood friend turned mean girl Farah (Deena Ezral). Farah is a compelling villain, frequently slut shaming Zaffan and turning all the girls at school against her, including another childhood friend Mariam (Piqa). It makes the process of puberty feel all the more agonizing, especially considering all of the sequences that show the strange changes Zaffan’s body undergoes, from her fingernails falling off to an uncanny rash that overtakes most of her body.

Yet, while this film has plenty of body horror elements and a few gross-out moments, there’s doses of humor here. The teachers and administrators come across as totally inept. There’s even an exorcist of sorts named Dr. Rahim (Shaheizy Sam) who attempts to rid Zaffan of the “dark presence” all the while filming it and encouraging parents and students to use hashtags with his name. This particular exorcism scene is unlike any we’ve seen, while also acknowledging the horror genre’s long history of using possession and exorcism as a metaphor for female agency and suppression. Yet, nothing in this film is at it seems, which makes it so refreshing, even when it warrants comparisons to some western films like Ginger Snaps.

Yet, it’s Zairizal’s performance that really anchors this story, despite its fantastical elements. She’s a totally relatable character, someone who doesn’t understand the changes her body endures and who’s an outcast to no fault of her own. It’s hard not to feel for her when Farah and her following torment her, at one point dragging her body out of a bathroom stall. It gets to the point you just want Zaffan to turn into a tiger and gut everyone that abuses her.

Tiger Stripes is a coming-of-age narrative that seamlessly blends other genres and isn’t afraid to have a laugh or two in the process, even after some of its unnerving body horror sequences. Zaffan is a protagonist that’ll have viewers cheering for her to lash out against her bullies. Nell Eu has crafted a film that feels distinct and wholly original, even while nodding to other genres.

8 Out of 10