11 Filipino horror writers to add to your library this Halloween

Dubbed the “Queen of Philippine Horror”, Yvette Tan’s slim novels pack an undeniable punch. She grew up with a lifelong interest in Filipino folklore, which has heavily influenced releases like Waking the Dead and Other Stories and Insect Hag and Other Stories. 

The latter collection, in particular, immerses readers in the world of love, death and pests. As the characters alleviate their mysterious struggles, they find themselves plagued by disembodied voices, abandoned friends and calls for revenge. Altogether, Tan retains a critical voice about the Philippines’ current sociopolitical climate.  

This Pampanga-born writer wore many hats, from writing fiction and plays in Filipino and English to working as a visual artist and clinical therapist. He was also known for conducting workshops in magic, dream analysis and psychic powers, which influenced his works such as Cubao Pagkagat ng Dilim: Mga Kuwentong Kababalaghan. 

In these experimental short stories, gritty scenes from Cubao, Quezon City take on a darker, more supernatural turn. Legendary creatures like the aforementioned manananggal (self-segmenting female monster) and tikbalang (half-man, half-horse elemental guardian) roam freely among humans and instigate unpredictable, suspenseful events. 

A former immigration lawyer, the Filipino-American writer Daphne Fama now balances her time writing gothic horror novels and running a non-profit organisation for stray animals called Many Paws, One Heart. Her debut novel, House of Monstrous Women, exemplifies her deep immersion in the world of Filipino folklore and political history. 

House of Monstrous Women follows a young woman named Josephine, who came of age during the Seventies martial law era and was left an orphan after her parents’ untimely demise. She seeks comfort in her friendship with Hiraya, around whose family allegations of witchcraft swirl. Years later, Hiraya invites Josephine and her brother to the Ranoco family island for a deadly game of hide-and-seek. 

Of additional note is Fama’s upcoming novel, A Deadly Blooming, where a young woman competes with the babaylan (shamans) of her hometown for her mother’s inheritance. The book will be out in March 2027. 

The Filipino-Chinese author Rin Chupeco is known for their unique blend of horror, speculative fiction and fantasy novels. Before writing full-time, they worked as a graphic designer and technical writer. Chupeco’s debut works are The Girl From The Well (2014) and its sequel, The Suffering (2015), which took inspiration from Japanese folklore, particularly the legend of The Ring. Chupeco is also well-known for The Bone Witch trilogy.  

Another memorable book is The Sacrifice, a young adult novel set on the seemingly idyllic Kisapmata Island. A daring television crew seeks a sleeping Dreamer god, who will grant boundless power in exchange for eight sacrifices. As the story goes on, the local tour guide has to save the crew from their impending demise. 

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Victor Manibo is a Filipino novelist and Lambda Literary fellow based in New York. Manibo writes about horror, science fiction and crime thrillers. Beyond his work as a lawyer, Manibo has led speculative fiction workshops at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and the Southampton Writers Conference.

His debut gothic horror novel, The Villa, Once Beloved, takes place in the formerly grand Sepulveda Mansion in Leyte. This colonial mansion has witnessed countless deaths from the martial law era to the modern day, when a Filipino-American descendant of the Sepulveda clan returns to mourn his grandfather’s death. As the once-prominent family clashes over funeral arrangements and childhood gripes, the manor’s sinister past unveils itself once and for all. 

Vivien Rainn is an independent Filipino author who was born in Baguio and eventually immigrated to New Zealand. She is known for blending gothic horror with intergenerational religious trauma, spotlighting young women who often carry the burden of responsibility for their families. 

So far, Rainn has released a series that began with the 2022 novel Solita, in which a grieving young woman named Sadie returns to her family home in Palawan and accidentally unearths an ancient entity. While navigating the resounding familial losses in Hacienda Espinosa, Sadie learns to trust her hard-earned intuition to face her past without flinching. 

Known for her wide array of translated works and edited anthologies, Kristine Ong Muslim is a prolific writer with nine poetry collections and fiction books and was twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives in a small farmhouse in Sitio Magutay, a remote rural highland area in Maguindanao. 

Age of Blight is her foray into the horror genre, through a short story collection that imagines humanity’s downfall by its own hand. From doppelgangers emerging in children’s backyards to sisters resurrecting from the dead, Ong Muslim subverts the expectations for dystopian literature with her signature humour and wit.  

Kevin and Kyle Ferraren are two brothers who work together as independent Filipino authors. Their works span from magical realism to war novellas and gothic horror. Altogether, each book serves as a natural extension of Philippine mythology and colonial history, where they explore the consequences of war and turn the expectations of historical fiction on their head. 

The Dreaming at the Drowned Town secures them a spot among the Philippines’ best horror writers. Here, a translator accompanies an American journalist and his young wife through the Cebu and Leyte of the 1920s. Their goal is to investigate a mysterious island that has emerged from the depths of the sea, not realising that this adventure will irrevocably change, and in some cases end, their lives as they know them to be. 

As a third-generation Filipino-Chinese, JL Chua was expected to take his economics degree and funnel it into a career in business, engineering or medicine. Instead, he entered the world of journalism and has been a long-standing editor at the Manila Bulletin. He achieved his childhood dream of writing a short story collection through Kuwentong Butsero. 

Despite his privileged background, Chua was deeply immersed in the life and social gatherings of activists. Twenty-five years of these memories have culminated in this gritty, violent short story collection that explores the darker side of human nature. It may not be for the faint of heart, but those who brave its pages will surely be enthralled by just how far Filipino literature can go. 

Beyond his work as a writer, Leoncia Deriada was a professor emeritus of creative writing and literature at the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo. Deriada is a multilingual writer who received 17 Palanca awards in his lifetime, with written pieces in English, Filipino and Hiligaynon. He has also won numerous other awards, including the Gawad CCP para sa Sining and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas. 

Night Mares: And Other Stories of Fantasy and Horror was Deriada’s second collection of stories. One prominent story follows a boy named Juanito, whose fearless father left the village to hunt a terrorising tikbalang and never returned. As stories of a kapre (cigar-smoking giant) start to loom over the village, Juanito follows in his father’s footsteps and uses an unconventional method to drive the monster away. 

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