Growing up with her grandmother, Ivana Alawi is familiar with the aswang.
She still vividly remembers how her late lola would often tell her stories about the creature, among others.

"Palagi niya akong kinukwentuhan tungkol sa mga aswang, sa mga multo -- lahat ng mga Filipino horror stuff. So I do believe in it pero never experienced it," she shared in a recent interview.
According to Ivana, she will never forget her lola's story about the aswang, which is a bracket term for shape-shifting creatures that have a variety of forms, such as the blood-sucking vampire, the self-segmenting viscera sucker, the man-eating weredog, the vindictive or evil-eye witch, and the carrion-eating ghoul.
"Kasi 'yun talaga 'yung kinukwento sa akin ever since maliit ako. So talagang tumatak siya sa akin na matakot sa mga aswang, na 'pag may nadinig kayong mga uwak nandiyan na siya (aswang)," she shared, laughing.
Ivana now stars in “Aswang,” a segment of iWant TFC's horror flick "Sitsit."
Asked how their family will remember her late father this All Soul's Day, she said, "Si mom sabi niya kailangan namin mag-dinner ng buong family namin and kailangan namin siyempre... we always have to pray for our loved ones who aren't with us now and every day we've been doing it naman. But for November we're just going to have simple dinner para sa aming lahat."
Ivana's father suffered a heart attack and died at a hospital in Subic in December 2018.