8. Marilyn Burns (Sally Hardesty) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The original scream queen? No, not by a long shot, but she's definitely the most audible and, when looking at the ending, the most realistic. Tobe Hooper's classic may have been watered down by awful sequels and pointless remakes but the performances as a whole in his 1974 original are great and Burns just edges out Gunnar Hansen's Leatherface for a place on this list. The story of a group of teens being picked off by a family of slaughterhouse workers is well documented now, as is Hooper's filming schedule of sixteen hour days in 100 degree heat. Although Hansen had to wear a stinking costume for days on end, it was Burns who was physically, and psychologically, put through the mire. A promising stage actress, she'd missed out on a few roles before Hooper picked her up to join his cast of unknowns. Her work here is easily the best of her career. Sally starts as a sweet, unassuming character, caring for her paraplegic brother Franklin and loving towards her college sweetheart Jerry. What starts with a bizarre attack in their campervan from a hitchhiker, escalates when Sally's friends begin wandering off into a farmhouse. Sally eventually, in the cover of night, decides to find them but is caught up in a nightmare world of attacks from the gas station owner, finger-sucking from Grandpa and horrible and unending chases through the undergrowth by Leatherface. As the horror grows, Sally begins to tip over the edge until the final, unforgettable shot, as Sally laughs uncontrollably, manically, as she escapes in a van. She is clearly psychologically broken and Burns' performance to this point is a master-class of horror acting.
