When is a Lucio Fulci sequel not a Lucio Fulci sequel, when it's the Texas regional film THROUGH THE FIRE, on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

After her freelance journalist sister Marilyn mysteriously vanishes, Sandra Curtis (Tamara Hext) appeals to off-duty police officer Nick Berkeley (Tom Campitelli, BRUTAL FURY) for help when the official investigation goes cold. They discover that she was doing research into the occult and had in her possession a mysterious amulet that university professor PJ (Billie Carroll) reveals is a protection against the god Moloch who demands human sacrifices of his followers. Their investigation is hindered by Marilyn's seemingly benevolent colleague Randy (Randy Strickland) as well as attacks by a group of Satanists whose mistimed sacrifice to Moloch has given a human host to the beast that will slaughter them unless they can contain it with the amulet.

An extremely talky regional horror film, THROUGH THE FIRE is heavy on exposition and wandering with occasional cutaways to indistinct monster attacks, only really coming to life in its climax where the action is shifted from the flatly-lit Texas suburbs to a derelict downtown hotel lit with BLADE RUNNER-esque shafts of light and smoke and punctuated by SUSPIRIA-esque cutaways to ornate architectural features. The middle-aged Texan occultists are duller than the youths of THE DEMON LOVER and largely ineffectual against both the humans and the monster who is visualized as zombiefied humans with only a late bit of latex transformation. The film's attempts at humor are undermined by generally poor acting apart from the reasonably likable trio of leads. The photography is intermittently interesting but the score by Texas composer Ron DiIulio (MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL MASSACRE) is a point of interest. Ultimately, the film is more interesting for its release history than as a thriller or horror film.

Released theatrically and on video overseas under its original title, the film did not turn up domestically until 1997 when Cydonia Entertainment put it out under the title THE GATES OF HELL PART II: DEAD AWAKENING as a companion piece to their tape release of Fulci's THE GATES OF HELL (which did not recycle Paragon's fullscreen transfer but featured a letterboxed presentation of a ratty American 35mm print) for their Creature Features line that also included reissues of Bruno Mattei's HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD under its American NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES title and Pupi Avati's ZEDER under its American REVENGE OF THE DEAD title. THROUGH THE FIRE did not appear under its original title until it popped up briefly on Amazon streaming from an old video master before vanishing again.

Vinegar Syndrome's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from a 2K scan of the original 35mm internegative. Flatly lit interiors fare best while day and night exteriors feature only fair shadow detail and underexposure noise while some of the moodier-lit scenes fare reasonably well compared to the video master. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is cleanly mixed but not particularly dynamic apart from the scoring, and optional English SDH subtitles are provided.

On the commentary, director Gary Marcum notes that the film was sold overseas but it would be some times before he entrusted a sales representative to shop the film around for domestic home video. That person apparently vanished with the original negative and materials – necessitating the use of the internegative for the feature presentation – and the disc's inclusion in its entirety of THE GATES OF HELL PART II: DEAD AWAKENING as a standard definition video sourced extra (87:32) reveals the sales rep did not just sell a tape master to Cydonia but an altered version of the film featuring opening narration by Hext, some reordered scenes, the removal of some gore and the film's single instance of nudity, and well as some other audio alterations (Strickland speaks in English in his early scene on a payphone in the theatrical version but in a foreign language with video-generated subtitles in the video version). These differences are interesting but this probably is not the edition to which viewers will return if they do at all.

The theatrical version is accompanied by the aforementioned commentary by writer/director Marcum moderated by Vinegar Syndrome's Brad Henderson. Henderson conveys his affection for the film he discovered on tape as a sequel to Fulci's THE GATES OF HELL of which Marcum was ignorant until the tape release, and he points out some of the film's good points. Marcum notes his dislike of horror but knowing that the genre sold well and would be suited to his directorial debut after the collaborating was writer, producer, and editor on the student film INTERFACE that landed a video deal with Prism, and operating the camera on POSITIVE I.D. which sold to Universal, leading to expectations of an easy sell of a horror film. While Overseas Film Group sold the film overseas, he was unaware of the domestic video release until a friend contacted him and he felt it would not be worth the expense of legal action.

Marcum appears again on a commentary track on the video version accompanied by co-writer/associate producer Brad Potter and editor Jay Helton, this time moderated by Zack Carlson in which they discuss more about the Texas filmmaking scene, the film's casting – Hext was a former Miss Texas and Campitelli was a method actor – a lost 16mm promo used to attract investors, how the structure of the story owes to Marcum's University of Texas film school education where they were encouraged to be unconventional in storytelling, and some background about the effects. Carlson provides some information on the differences between the two cuts but they go largely unmentioned by the participants.