Where Has Sally Hardesty Gone? The Character’s Fate in Various ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ Timelines

The image of Sally Hardesty screaming in the back of a pickup truck, just narrowly escaping from Leatherface’s chainsaw blade with her life, is one of the most enduring and iconic images in all of horror history, that moment of course found in the final moments of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Many consider Sally, played by the late Marilyn Burns, to be the very first tried and true “final girl” of slasher horror, the prototype for characters such as Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, Alice Hardy and many others that would soon come in her wake.

But unlike Laurie, Nancy, and Alice, Sally never did return for a sequel to Hooper’s horror classic, the character’s fate left hanging in the balance and never truly explored by any of the subsequent Chainsaw movies. Even when it came time to remake The Texas Chain Saw Massacre back in 2003, that film’s final girl was named Erin, a successor to Sally’s throne.

Of course, that all changes this year, as Sally Hardesty is set to return and get her Laurie Strode on in Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with actress Olwen Fouéré (Mandy) taking over the iconic role. Sadly, original actor Marilyn Burns passed away back in 2014, but not before at least making a cameo appearance as a new character in Texas Chainsaw 3D.

Netflix’s movie is set to be a sequel to the original classic, once again creating a new timeline for the franchise. This will be the very first time we actually get to see what Sally Hardesty has been up to, and she’s clearly looking for revenge for the murders of her friends (and brother) nearly 50 years prior. But what became of Sally in the other Chainsaw timelines?

While the Sally character was never explored in depth in the wake of 1973’s game-changing horror classic, the various sequels did at least provide us with some little updates…

For starters, the opening scrawl in Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 reveals that Sally “sank into catatonia” after telling her story to the authorities. “The girl babbled a mad tale,” the opening sequence explains. “A cannibal family in an isolated farmhouse… chain-sawed fingers and bones… her brother, her friends hacked up for barbecue.”

Later, 1990’s Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 reveals an alternate fate for Sally, with that sequel’s opening scrawl confirming that Sally didn’t live much longer.

“Ms. Hardesty was the sole survivor of that night of terror,” the opening to Chainsaw Massacre 3 reveals. “She died in a private health care facility in 1977.” This would’ve been just four years after the events of the original movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 making an attempt to explain why the franchise hasn’t ever gone back to tell the rest of Sally’s story.

And then there’s oddball sequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation from 1994, which actually brought back Marilyn Burns for a short cameo appearance. Burns is briefly rolled past the screen on a hospital bed, and many fans believe that her character is none other than Sally Hardesty, hospitalized since the events of the original classic back in the 1970s.

Much like in Texas Chainsaw 3D, where she played Leatherface’s mother, this cameo from Marilyn Burns could of course be a different character entirely, merely a fun way to bring the actress back for a little Easter Egg for the longtime fans. She’s credited only as “patient on gurney” in The Next Generation, but it’s hard not to imagine this being the return of Sally.

So you see, much like the franchise’s overall continuity, the fate of Sally Hardesty post-Chain Saw has always been a bit of a “choose your own adventure” mess, but this year’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre will finally aim to provide us with a clear continuation of the classic horror heroine’s story. What ever became of Sally Hardesty? We’re about to find out.

Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre arrives on February 18.

The post Where Has Sally Hardesty Gone? The Character’s Fate in Various ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ Timelines appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.