Sally Hardesty

Sally Hardesty
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre character
Marilyn Burns portraying Sally in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
First appearance	The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Last appearance	Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)
Created by	Tobe Hooper
Portrayed by	Original series: (1974–1994) Marilyn Burns Reimagined series: (2003) Jessica Biel
Information
Gender	Female
Family	Franklin Hardesty (brother)

Sally Hardesty (named Erin Hardesty in the 2003 reboot) is a fictional character in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. She was portrayed by Marilyn Burns in the original series and by Jessica Biel in the rebooted series and serves as the primary protagonist of both the 1974 film and the 2003 reboot. She has been regarded as one of the earliest examples of the final girl trope.^[1]

Appearances

Film

In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Sally and her paraplegic brother, Franklin, travel with three friends, Jerry, Kirk, and Pam, to visit the grave of the Hardesty's grandfather after reports of vandalism and grave robbing in the area. Afterwards, they decide to visit the old Hardesty family homestead. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker who talks about his family who worked at the old slaughterhouse. He borrows Franklin's pocket-knife and cuts himself, then takes a Polaroid picture of the others and demands money for it. When they refuse to pay, he burns the photo and slashes Franklin's arm with a straight razor. The group forces him out of the van and drive on. They stop at a gas station to refuel, but the proprietor tells them that the pumps are empty. They continue toward the homestead, planning to return to the gas station on the way back when it has received fuel delivery. When they arrive, Kirk and Pam find a swimming-hole dried up but hear a generator running. They stumble upon a nearby house. Kirk, Pam and Jerry are soon killed by Leatherface. Sally and Franklin become concerned when they can't find their friends. Leatherface appears and kills Franklin with a chainsaw and Sally runs to the old house. She runs up stairs and finds the desiccated bodies of an old couple. She jumps out of the second story window to escape Leatherface and runs to the gas station. The proprietor ties Sally up and forces her into the back of his truck and drives to the house. Sally is tied to a chair at a dinner table and Leatherface and the hitchhiker bring the desiccated body of the old man downstairs who sucks the blood from Sally's cut on her finger. They decide that he should be the one who should kill her. After several failed attempts of the old man trying to hit Sally with a hammer, she manages to escape and jump through the window and flee. She reaches the road and a semi-truck stops to help her but Leatherface attacks the driver. She jumps into the back of a pickup truck that stops to help her and Leatherface swings his chainsaw out of anger.^[2][3]

Although she doesn't appear in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Sally is mentioned in the beginning. It is said that she described the traumatic experience as feeling like she had "broken out of a window in hell." and that she had went into catatonia after telling her experience of encountering the cannibalistic family, seeing the chain-sawed body parts of her friends and family and the chairs made out of human skeletons. Many people didn't believe her story because Texas lawmen couldn't find the farmhouse or the killers that she mentioned in her "mad tale".^[4]

In the intro speech for Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, it is said that Sally died in a private health care facility.

In Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Sally has a cameo appearance. This film is set in between the second and third movie. She is briefly shown being wheeled through a hospital on a gurney while still in a coma. Marilyn Burns reprises her role for this film.^[5]

In the 2003 reboot, Sally is named Erin Hardesty. Erin, her boyfriend Kemper, and their friends Morgan, Andy, and Pepper - are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. The group pick up a hitchhiker they see walking in the middle of the road. After trying to talk to the hitchhiker, she pulls out a .357 Magnum and shoots herself. The group goes to a nearby store to contact the police where a woman tells them to meet the sheriff at the mill. Instead of the sheriff, they find a young boy, who tells them that the sheriff is at home. Erin and Kemper go through the woods to find the sherrif's house. They come across an old house and Erin is allowed inside by an amputee to call for help. Kemper goes inside to look for Erin and is killed by Leatherface. When Erin returns, she finds that Kemper is still missing. Andy and Erin go back to the house, the amputee realizes Andy is inside and summons Leatherface, who attacks him with his chainsaw. Erin escapes and heads towards the woods. Erin makes it back to the mill, but before she can leave the sheriff shows up. After finding marijuana on the dashboard, he orders Erin, Morgan, and Pepper to get out of the van. Erin manages to hot wire the truck but the wheels fall off. Leatherface arrives shortly after and starts hacking through the roof. When Pepper is killed, Erin runs and hides in a nearby trailer belonging to an obese woman, and a younger woman, who offer her tea. Erin discovers they have kidnapped a child when she sees that the baby with them is the same child in a photograph with the hitchhiker. The tea is drugged, and Erin passes out before she can leave the trailer. Erin wakes up at the Hewitt house surrounded by the Hewitt family. She finds Morgan handcuffed in a bathtub. Jedidiah leads them out of the house. Erin and Morgan find an abandoned shack in the woods and barricade themselves inside. Leatherface breaks in and kills Morgan. Erin escapes through the woods, chased by Leatherface. She finds a slaughterhouse and hides in a locker. After the truck driver that stopped to help her goes to the eatery to get help, Erin evades the sheriff and gets the stole baby and escapes in the police car.^[6]

Sally appears in a flashback scene in Texas Chainsaw 3D.^[7]

Reception

The character has been regarded as one of the greatest and earliest examples of the final girl trope. Jonny Hughes praised her toughness saying:

"Few Final Girls go through as harrowing of experiences as Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper’s enormously influential The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. First her, her brother and friends encounter a rather troubling hitchhiker who makes them fear for their lives, but this is nothing compared to what follows. Leatherface brutally kills her friends, and then kills her brother in front of her. She then flees in terror as she is chased by a chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, but after thinking she is safe, she is then dragged back to the house. She is then tortured and tormented by the deeply disturbing cannibal family, but, being a fighter, Sally manages to escape for a second time and narrowly gets away in the back of a truck. The awful events she goes through, the fact that she escapes twice, and her fierce determination to survive make her one of the genre’s toughest Final Girls."^[8]

Lisa Fermont also praised the character's toughness calling Sally her favorite final girl saying, "Everything that Sally is put through is mentally, emotionally and physically draining, but the girl manages to survive."^[9] Rob Galluzzo said that Sally isn't a final girl but is instead a survivor, saying " Sally wasn’t a “final girl.” She wasn’t a “scream queen.” She was a character that faced the most difficult of challenges and through pure sheer will somehow managed to survive the most horrific ordeal anyone should ever have to face. She’s a survivor".^[10]

References

External links

• Sally Hardesty at the Internet Movie Database