Chloe and Maria are friends, enjoying a girls’ night in Maria’s apartment. They plan to sleep in, with a few glasses of wine and a spooky film for the night. In their late 20s, and alone in the city, the girls are passing through similar phases in their lives. Both are yet to find steady boyfriends. Chloe has been in a relationship with Justin for three months now, and Maria is thrilled for the couple. As the girls get more wasted that night, Chloe tells Maria the story of Lucy. Urban legend has it that on her wedding night, the bride Lucy finds her best friend in bed with her future husband. Enraged, she goes into a fit of range and kills them both. Chloe tells maria of the urban legend, which says that when anyone is cheating on their best friend, Lucy appears in their sleep, paralyses them, and then murders them. After this session of scary storytelling, the girls laugh it off as something that was weird. Later that night, we see Maria experiencing a similar situation when she gets ready for sleep. Why does maria get a visitation? What wrong did she do? Is the HAG for real?
‘HAG’ is a short script by writer Brooke DeRosa. ‘HAG’ rides on the urban legend of the old hag syndrome that mutates the phenomenon of sleep paralysis to create a supernatural malevolent creature immobilizing victims in their sleep. In the story of ‘HAG’, DeRosa adds a couple of new ideas to the urban legend without losing out on its authenticity. The manner in which the ‘last twist’ in the story plays out makes quite an impact. ‘HAG’ is a fun girls’ night in that quickly takes a few turns to become the dark scene of cheating and revenge.
‘HAG’ is a modern day love story with the elements of deceit, revenge and pain that are woven intricately into an urban legend. It tells us how an unusual phenomenon is manipulated for personal gains, because it is easier to sell exotic stories rife with drama than the straight truth.
