User reviews

"Zaffan" (Zafreen Zairizal) is a young girl merrily enjoying her childhood until her body decides it's time to grow up - and so she awakens horrified and bloody. Her mother reassures her and off she goes to school - only to find that her friend, the prefect "Farah" (Deena Ezral) is rather disgusted by her new found maturity. It isn't long before "Zaffan" is being ostracised by her classmates and no matter how hard she tries, she cannot re-engage with her pals. The frustration this causes starts to manifest itself in dreams, then in more than those - in physical changes that seem to be rendering her more animal than human - as epitomised by her new favourite snacks! In a rural Malaysian community that is not without it's superstition, her shunning becomes more complete - but what can she do? Can the enigmatic "Dr. Rahim" (Shaheizy Sam) help out with his internet-friendly method and speciality products? The production standards aren't the best, but there's an engaging effort the young and enthusiastic Zairizal as she learns to shin up trees in record time and manage to work well enough with the very limited visual effects. It's not without some humour - especially at the end, and that helps it move along quickly with just enough emphasis on a subject rarely touched upon by cinema anywhere. It'll be fine on the television, and it is worth ninety minutes.

Much like Carrie White of the Stephen King novel and later film, Zafan is the first in her class to experience her period, and somehow, the school is aware of her situation.

Classmates mock her and the girl begins to exhibit some very strange behavior. A bathroom scene where she is attacked by a group of girls from her school results in a demon like possession and a Muslim supposed cleric arrives to perform an almost Catholic style exorcism. The man is obviously a con artist with business cards and social media presence.

The Malaysian scenery is beautiful and the lead actress is excellent.

I was not happy with the ending but Tiger Stripes is a decent horror film.

Not too big of a fan of the plot (personally felt some aspects were stretched to the point of comic absurdity), but I thought some scenes were excellent.

Also, the lead girl is superb. She brought to life the struggle with identity and transition from childhood to adolescence quite powerfully. It helps that the supporting characters were all very bad actors, so that her talent was more pronounced and better highlighted.

There's that typical clichéd attempt to tokenize the Indian and Chinese, but luckily it wasn't shoved right in the face of the audience.

The movie itself also felt a bit too overwrought and long.

Is this a horror film? It shouldn't be categorized as such, just because there's a few horror elements.

I had high expectations for this film because I saw that the director had won numerous awards and it was co-produced by eight countries. I decided to watch it and was impressed by the superb cinematography; I would give the cinematographer 10/10 stars.

However, there were several issues with the film. To create a compelling movie, every scene should have a purpose so that it is not a waste of money and time. The general structure of storytelling includes an introduction, climax, and conclusion.

What this film lacks is a clear conclusion or solution to the problems highlighted in the introduction and climax. The film suggests that there is a problem involving a character named Zaffan, Mariam and Farah attract an entity in the jungle, which gradually infects these three girls and transforms them into tigers. However, the film leaves the audience hanging without explaining what the entity actually is. Maybe it is Saka or a jungle entity? What does this entity want from the three girls? These are questions that should have been addressed and put into the scene.

Many scenes in the film seem unnecessary. For example, scenes like the canteen scene, the fake ustaz scene, the camp scene, the weird drawing scene, the sticker scene, and the father's hunting scene all lack meaningful context. These could have been cut to make room for explanations about the entity and its effects on the girls.

Another major problem is the lack of resolution to the central issue. After the fake ustaz is decapitated by Zaffan (who is no longer herself), the villagers merely record the incident while the parents wait at home instead of contacting authorities for help. Is this supposed to be normal behavior? For a film that runs for 1.5 hours to be precised, it fails to explain the cause of the 'disease' or offer a solution to the problem. Perhaps the director intended for viewers to draw their own conclusions? The ending scene showed that the three infected girls were dancing happily at the river, I was wondering this scene is before or after the infection? But my sister said, she saw the red claw scar on zaffan thigh so it might be after the infection. So is that the conclusion after all the heavy complications at the beginning? Hurmmm.

As a fan of horror movies, I was disappointed. I was eager to see how the plot would unfold, but it ended up being confusing and disengaging, leaving the audience wondering what they had just watched. The entire two-hour film could have been condensed into 30 minutes. I really dont want to compare with our neighbour's film but just to make an example so we can do better, look at one of latest Indonesian horror film 'menjelang ajal', every scene has a meaning and we understand all the facts in the film completely.

Nevertheless, the cinematography was excellent, and I truly appreciated every angle of the work. Zaffan, Mariam, and Farah were outstanding actresses, and I was very impressed with their performances. They deserve more opportunities in the future!

Tiger Stripes is a film about the sexual awakening of a young Malaysian girl, in a society dominated by conservative religious dogma.

Zaffan is the first girl in her class to get her period.

Which gets her out of morning prayers...but comes with the usual coming of age changes a blossoming youth might face.

These changes come with a price, however...as the fundamentalist rhetoric of Islamic fearmongers are designed to deter young women from their own sexuality, by putting the fear of God into them.

Which only acts to make the other kids spread rumours about her.

For her...it's a liberating experience.

For them...she's a sl*t who is being targeted by demons.

Which leads her friends to distance themselves from her.

This, obviously, causes her stress.

And this stress triggers medical issues that she tries to hide from her family and friends out of shame.

Eventually, she starts to become the "monster" they make her out to be.

But the real horror comes into play when the town brings in an exorcist to beat he demons out of her...

The first half of the film is really good.

But the second half kind of lost me due to a combination of absurdity and bad acting.

The main actress does a great job, throughout, though.

So props to her.

Unfortunately, the film, as a whole, is just kind of average.

But I'm loving that Islamic areas are busting into the horror game.

4 out of 10.

Tiger Stripes: A Malaysian coming of age shape-shifter body horror film. Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) attends a conservative school, along with the other girls she is forced to wear a hijab and long robes. Being a rebel she takes the hujan off and dances on Tik-Tok. This gets her in trouble at school and with her pious mother. She is the first in her class to menstruate and this gradually leads to her being excluded by her friends and bullied. Her body changes though in surprising ways. Blotches, stiff hairs to start with but then claws develop. This is a tale which involves many Fortean tropes demons of the forest which Zaffan sees sitting in trees, mass hysteria of schoolgirls having fits, an exorcist Imam, a shape-shifting transformation into Werechild. Mostly though it is a story about revolt against medievalist misogyny and a girl fighting for her freedom. There is one scene in particular where Zaffan deals with an Imam which fair gladdened my heart and made me laugh out loud. It is in the tradition of Carrie and Ginger Snaps. Tiger Stripes: was released in Malaysia in a heavily censored version, and the director has disowned that cut of the film. Written and Directed by Amanda Nell Eu. 8/10.

Responses from general people have been mildly positive but many have been experiencing how this isn't a horror movie and there's not much scares. It's more of a coming-of-age story rather then horror so just keep that in mind. This movie won the Critics' Week Grand Prize and having seen it, I can see why.

Director Amanda Nell Eu does a pretty good job other debut story about the coming-of-age setting of a 12 year old girl going through some bizarre changes and situations with gorgeous colorful camerawork, sound designs, themes and atmospheres, and good performance from the lead actress.

Malaysian cinema isn't often discussed and rarely I have seen films from the country and having known it's culture and background, the movie does a pretty good job on capturing the setting, atmosphere, culture and beliefs with some interesting ballsy choices like discussions of periods and showing Malay girls' sexuality. Throughout, Nell Eu's direction was pretty good on handling the narrative, sound, atmosphere and concepts. While some concepts are a bit cliched of certain horror tropes, the narrative mostly worked.

The performances are pretty good as the child performance are all solid. The sound designs are good, the characters, while a bit thin, remain interesting and engaging to observe, and it has a good score. The movie has horror themes explored but admittedly, since it is more of a coming-of-age story, the horror elements didn't feel as strong or ambitious as it could have been. Including some noticeable bad CGI.

Overall, despite the flaws, I found myself enjoying this movie because of it's ambitious style, concept and the direction it took. Again, this isn't the typical horror movie but it's more of a coming-of-age movie.

Really cool piece

Not quite sure what genre

Not horror

More rites-of-passage puberty tale with highly humorous and also serious themes blended in; shamanism is very present here too

The Malay village and surroundings/nature it is set in so beautiful

The acting from the three girls; this a teen buddy movie too really very good; the ancillaries pull their weight too; the parents are excellent in this too; the über-laidback dad an absolute treat

Watching more and more films and series from Asia and the quality is really as good as anything from The West often on a par with

Highly advised for folks who are interested in good cinema shamanism and the thorny time in a person's life we call teenage.

PS For the ones of you who have not seen it; watching Cat People (1982) would explain why I titled the review Cat People for 12 year old. The 1982 was not the first but it was an excellent film.

Amanda Nell Eu debut effort is a surreal study of a 12 year old girl's coming-of-age experience told against the backdrop of rural Selangor

Tinged with magical realism, the story is a simple slice of life tale with Zafreen Zairizal's impactful performance as Zaffan being the definite showstealer. Told through her lenses, we see her navigate the changes of puberty and the challenges of a small conservative town school life in an ever evolving modern world

The cinematography (by Gaudi Award nominated Jimmy Gimferrer) is excellent, with some breathtaking shots and framing of Malaysia's rainforest and the Titiwangsa range. The background score was also superb, an almost raw tone from Indonesian duo Gabber Modus Operandi.

Coming-of-age allegory/tale by way of demons (both personal and actual) with a dash of some werewolf energy. Absolutely gorgeous directing and cinematography, and main girl Zafreen Zairizal who played Zaffan was incredible. Fierce but fragile. What a performance. Big props also for the makeup and effects. Really different and beautiful creature design work. Also hi hello writer director if you see this please make a soundtrack playlist on Spotify :) Opening song had me dancing, and my heart always skips a beat when I see hot pink credits and title. This is a movie for all the cute ragey girlies.

At its finest, Tiger Stripes conjures the thrills of Mr Midnight novels, issues of Mastika or early Pontianak films (the latter two were direct sources of inspiration).

The narrative propels forward through the eyes of 12-year-old Zaffan, a precocious and spirited girl, dealing with puberty - specifically, as she experiences getting her period for the first time - and the estrangement as a result of it. Zafreen Zairizal carries the role with real charisma and playfulness that makes you root for her from the start. Her performance is supported by equally strong turns from Piqa and Deena Ezral, who play Zaffan's friends. The filial and societal strains Zaffan endures leads to an inevitable climax, but it is here Eu pulls an outstanding coup de cinema, through sheer practical effects that captures the magical realism of Nusantara folklore we have all grown up with.

After years of slop from the Marvel-industrial machine, and as we enter a new advent of AI and visual effects, there is still grace and beauty in practical, tactile approaches.

No pun intended - and I am quite certain that the filmmaker was not thinking of a Pixar movie when she made this. She had this in her from her own experience. There are parallels and there may be things that do ... well touch similar subject matter(s). A young girl growing up - having no idea about her own body and what it goes through. And no one that can tell her what is actually happening.

In Germany there was an ad that told (mostly) kids that a breakfast cereal was "waking the tiger in you" (English ads had it say "breakfast of champions") ... well if you are looking for a German pun ... look no further.

But this is not about my love for puns. No this is about a story of a girl who is misunderstood, has issues with the school she is in, her parents, her friends .. and the struggle of understanding her body and the transformation it does take ... There is so much to unpack ... sound design, costumes and of course acting! Everyone in this is really good - plus really good effects! If you are not too squeamish or sensitive .. and do not mind this pointing and showing us problems we do not see too often in movies (Red Pandas aside) ... well you could do worse.