Alyx Ayn Arumpac’s Aswang (2019) navigates an intimate terrain of the Philippine “war on drugs” during Rodrigo Duterte’s administration by documenting first-hand narratives from its various affected victims. The film challenges documentary norms as it entangles the reality of extrajudicial killings with the folkloric spectre of the “aswang.” Aswang’s (2019) narratives seek to temporarily disrupt perceptions of reality and expose the underbelly of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, as spearheaded by the program “Oplan Tokhang,” within the dark urban spaces of Manila. By employing horror as an allegorical medium, Aswang (2019) blurs the boundaries between reality and folklore, which urges its viewers to engage in a more interpretive cinematic encounter. It also augments the depiction of its victims’ actual harrowing experiences impacted by state-sanctioned violence through the cinematic instillation of fear and radical hope through visual, thematic, and symbolic elements.