FIGHT AN FLIGHT RESPONSE

Following the resounding international success of her debut feature film, Tiger Stripes, Malaysian filmmaker Amanda Nell Eu opens up about her fascination with the macabre and morbid, her journey of overcoming self-doubt and her commitment to telling stories that touch audiences

- Tania Jayatilaka

Growing up, Amanda Nell Eu loved a good ghost story. From urban legends and spine-tingling folklore to superstitions recounted by family members in solemn, foreboding fashion, these were cherished childhood memories for the young creative, signalling her emerging artistic inclination towards the genre of horror. One might wonder, did she scare easily as a child? Were these the tales typically used by her older siblings to petrify their unsuspecting younger sister for sport? But even at a young age, Eu realised her true calling was being at the other end of this spooky storytelling tradition; she wanted to be the one telling the stories, rather than the one spooked.

"I loved urban myths and folktales that were close to home, macabre stories of what happened in the nearby lake, or that old house we always drove past. I would always scare my younger brother with these stories," admits the 38-year-old filmmaker, whose love for art and cinema led her to study graphic design at Central Saint Martins, and later pursue a master's of arts in filmmaking at London Film School, graduating in 2012.

"I would always question old wives' tales that my elders would tell me. I wanted to know why we believed in so many superstitions, and the answers would always be so fantastic and illogical but somehow it made sense to everyone. I remember being obsessed with horror books about local myths because these were stories that were in our backyard. I had always loved cinema, and it was horror that led me to become a cinephile at a young age."