Top 5 final girls in horror films (casually killed off in the sequel)
By Jeremy Dick
via New Line Cinema
3. Sally Hardesty (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre)
This one might be the one that’s personally the most irritating for me, given that Sally is my favorite. Portrayed by the amazing Marilyn Burns, Sally’s plight she endures in this film haunts me to this day. Her acting and the feel of the film are both so realistic that I almost forget it’s a movie. When watching,I can literally feel her pain, and I’ve just never, ever wanted someone to survive in a horror film so badly.
Fortunately, Sally survives, and is last seen in the bed of a pick-up truck speeding away from the Sawyer farm. She’s clearly disturbed, and unsure whether to laugh, scream, or cry. But she’s alive, and somehow out of this disgusting nightmare. And that would have been the end of it, but apparently the sequels had other plans for Sally…
At the start of Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, a text graphic displayed on the screen, the same way the first two films had. This time, it clarifies that poor Sally has since died in a health care facility. Killing Sally by way of text is particularly aggravating because it’s pointless, as it serves no purpose to the story. Why couldn’t they just leave well enough alone?