A Monster that Splits in Two
Just to Get You
This week’s monster will give you the horror fix you are craving. Meet the gruesome and magnificent - Manananggal!
Origin - Philippines (Similar to the penanggal or penanggalan from Malaysian folklore)
Catchphrase: “There is no God at Night!”
A Manananggal is an infamous and much-feared Aswang from Filipino folklore, specifically, a viscera-sucker. An Aswang is a Filipino monster that harms others, a shape-sifting evil spirit. There are several types of Aswang - corpse eaters, werebeasts, blood suckers, witches, and viscera-suckers. Since a Manananggal is a viscera-sucker, she dines on a human’s internal organs, bile and fetuses. She has a long, thin tube-like tongue that penetrates one of her victim’s orifice so she can feast on what’s inside. When the sun sets, she splits her body in half, leaving the bottom hidden on Earth. Her top half grows bat-like wings and she takes to the air, intestines dangling from her bloody waist, as she searches for her preferred meal - human fetuses.
Even…