The Aswang

The most feared figure in Filipino folklore, and one of the most varied: the aswang can be a shapeshifter, a self-segmenting manananggal that flies as a torso hunting the pregnant, or a ghoul that steals the dead. Belief is strongest around the Visayas, and Capiz has an old reputation for it. It is genuinely alive in rural Philippines, and it has an ugly modern chapter: the CIA reportedly exploited the fear in 1950s counterinsurgency propaganda.