[Editorial] Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

It’s not wholly obvious in the first thirty minutes of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre just who our final girl will be, with no specific attention given to the character of Sally Hardesty. However, early signs of resilience such as her willingness to look at the photograph proffered by the unhinged Hitchhiker who is welcomed into their van (Pam, notably, cannot look at the picture) shows that she has more courage than most.  Furthermore, Sally demonstrates an alertness that her companions seem to lack; it is she who spots the blood-stained mark on the van, a forewarning that they should have heeded. 

Although the pair do not always get along, Sally remains committed to her brother, the irritating but memorable Franklin despite not being aware that when she agrees to take him with her in search of her beau Jerry, she is unknowingly wheeling him to a violent, agonizing death. One by one, Sally’s friends are beaten, hung and chopped up by a bewildered but monstrous Leatherface, leaving her alone to navigate her own hot, dusty Texan nightmare. 

For Sally, that which follows is the beginning of what is arguably the most agonizing and unrelenting experience in horror film history. Having witnessed her brother sawn in half before her very eyes by a chainsaw wielding monster, she shrieks with primal terror and bounds off in an attempt to escape into the darkness. Running for her life, we watch as the chainsaw comes within inches of her and the guttural screams continue, almost seeming to propel her onwards as though fuelling her ahead of Leatherface. Despite gaining distance, Sally runs right into what would normally be considered a safe space, but unfortunately this time the family home represents a place of danger, dysfunction and ultimately, death. As her manic cries sound out around the Sawyer house and she comes face-to-face with yet more terrifying sights, she leaps out of a first-floor window before crashing back to the outside world to flee from her tormentor once more. 

Refusing to give in to the sound and speed of Leatherface and his chainsaw, she happens upon a gas station and falls to her feet once safely inside. In one of horror's cruellest twists, Sally is not as safe as she (or we) might think and at the point of sheer exhaustion, just when she looks as though she is about to break, she is beaten with a brush and placed into an oversized sack. Here, still, with little energy remaining, she attempts bravely to fight back. 

Returning to the house where her friends’ deceased bodies are being kept, Sally has further trauma ahead as she is removed from the sack and comes eye to eye with the Hitchhiker from the opening scene. Horror upon horror follows as Grandpa is brought to the dinner table where the family have gathered in delight from tormenting the helpless Sally. Tied down to a chair, Sally’s finger is cut and she is forced to put this inside Grandpa’s mouth; her eyes soon widen to the point of almost bursting. Knocked unconscious, Sally comes up from a haze and back into the most hellish room on earth, opening her eyes only to relive the horror all over again. With a plate of food in front of her that could quite frankly be the chopped and diced parts of her former friends, Sally is encircled with a sound bath of noise, hysteria and grotesque behaviour of the deranged family. 

A bucket is promptly placed in front of her, one that might have been used to drain the blood of her friend Pam (a chilling thought). With her head over the vessel, Leatherface guides a frail Grandpa into bludgeoning her with a hammer. Here, Sally’s alertness comes back into play as she manages to use a moment of confusion amongst the family to implement her escape. Breaking free, she emerges from the darkness of the room to the blinding whiteness of outside in another scene of rebirth. Soaked through with blood, she is pursued by the Hitchhiker who is soon joined by Leatherface. Reaching a road ahead, she continues, broken and exhausted - her strength and determination pushing her onwards.

A passing truck stops to assist a blood-drenched Sally while Leatherface writhes on the ground after cutting into his leg with the chainsaw. As the truck driver escapes, Sally is left once more alone with Leatherface, but fortunately, she manages to flag down another vehicle which she stumbles shakily into the back of, barely managing to make it, but pushing on for dear life. Driven off into the dawn, laughing with triumph, relief and hysteria, Sally will no doubt never be the same again but she is, despite all the odds, still breathing. Let’s hear it for Sally: a woman who is willing to fight against all the odds to ensure her escape and survival! 

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