Through the Fire (1988 film)

Last updated
Through the Fire
Through the Fire poster.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed byGary Marcum
Written byGary Marcum
Brad Potter
Produced byCharles C. Cunningham
Gary Marcum
Brad Potter
Starring
CinematographyRoger Pistole
Edited byJay W. Helton
Lisa Lancaster
Music byRon Dilulio
Grady Orr
Distributed byTalon Productions
Tapeworm Video Distributors
Overseas Filmgroup
Release date
Running time
88 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$125,000

Through the Fire is a 1988 American horror film directed by Gary Marcum (as G. D. Marcum) and starring Tamara Hext, Tom Campitelli, and Randy Strickland. It follows a young woman in a Texas town who, with the help of a police officer, begins a search for her missing sister; in doing so, the two uncover a cabal of dilettante Satanists who have conjured a powerful demon.

Contents

Filmed in Fort Worth, Texas in 1986, Through the Fire had a limited screening there in late 1988. It was not distributed in the United States until 1997, when it was released on VHS under the alternative title The Gates of Hell Part II: Dead Awakening, falsely suggesting the film to be a sequel of City of the Living Dead (1980), a film by Lucio Fulci that was released in North America under the title The Gates of Hell.

Plot

At a bar in Fort Worth, Texas, Sandra Curtis becomes inebriated and is escorted home by police officer Nick Berkley. Meanwhile, four men dabbling in Satanic occult practices meet for a gathering, and express regret over the fact that they have conjured the demon Moloch through their rituals. Shortly after, a woman in a local home nearby is brutally murdered in her garage.

Sandra phones Nick the next day and asks to meet him. Upon doing so, she asks him to help locate her sister, Marilyn, who went missing five weeks prior. Nick agrees to help Sandra. Sandra receives a parcel from a jewelry repair company addressed to Marilyn containing an medallion, and recalls that her sister always wore it. Meanwhile, members of the cult begin stalking Sandra, and a rash of disappearances continues, a second being two local men who vanished while rock climbing. Believing the disappearances may be connected to Marilyn's, Nick and Sandra visit the monolith where the men went missing, and find a pentagram symbol at the top of the cliff.

Nick brings Marilyn's medallion to the local university where P. J., a professor can examine it and translate the Hebrew text inscribed on it. She informs Nick that the medallion is intended to be worn by a "destroyer," someone put on earth by God to battle evil forces. P. J., a skeptic of the supernatural, meets with Nick and Sandra together to explain the historical basis of the amulet and demon-conjuring, during which a powerful stream of light enters the house and beams through Nick and Sandra. Rattled by the experience, the three agree to spend the night together, and Nick drives P. J. to her home to retrieve her clothing and belongings.

Sandra, alone in the house, discovers that her cat has been locked in her freezer and frozen to death. Later that night, the cultists raid the house in search of the medallion. Nick manages to shoot one of them to death, but they murder P. J. in the process. Nick and Sandra go into hiding at a hotel, where they are visited by Randy Sternman, one of the cultists, who attempts to explain to them that their duty is to enforce evildoing; he also reveals that, though he was a friend of Marilyn, the cult had to kill her.

Armed with guns and protective gear, Nick and Sandra track the cultists to an abandoned hotel downtown where they have been living. Inside, they find several of the cultists dead, including Randy, whose throat has been slashed. Each of the dead cultists are reanimated as zombies by the demonic Moloch, and begin stalking Nick and Sandra through the hotel. Nick is injured during an altercation with one of the zombies, leaving Sandra alone to fend for herself. Facing off with the possessed Randy, Sandra manages to hang from a windowsill outside one of the rooms while a grenade detonates inside, destroying him.

Nick reappears, but Sandra, believing him to be one of the undead, forces him at gunpoint to recite the Lord's Prayer to her to prove he is in fact alive. Though he struggles to recite it, Sandra quickly realizes through his stumbling that he has not been overtaken by Moloch, and the two depart the hotel.

Cast

Production

Through the Fire was shot on location in Fort Worth, Texas in the summer of 1986 [2] on a budget of $125,000. [3] Filming locations included the then-abandoned Blackstone Hotel and Hulen Mall. [3]

Release

Through the Fire had a small screening in Fort Worth, Texas, where it was filmed, on October 26, 1988 at the Ridglea Theatre. [3]

Critical response

Michael H. Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote that while the film's special effects "fail the story early on," they "rally toward the end in a rampage sequence that will linger in memory long after moments of ineptitude have been forgotten." [4] Price added that the film's buddy humor between the two lead characters "tends to overwhelm the suspense, but comes in hand for the denouement." [4]

Home media

The film was not distributed in the United States until nearly ten years after its original production. It was given a VHS release on April 18, 1997 [5] by Creature Features under the title The Gates of Hell Part II: Dead Awakening, [6] falsely suggesting the film was a sequel to Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead (1980), which was titled The Gates of Hell in the United States.

In 2021, Vinegar Syndrome released the film for the first time on Blu-ray, featuring a new 2K scan of the original film elements. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Worth, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly 350 square miles (910 km2) into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According to a 2022 United States census estimate, Fort Worth's population was 956,709, the 5th-most populous in the state and the 13th-most populous in the United States. Fort Worth is the second-largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, which is the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the United States, and the most populous in Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Fort Worth International Airport</span> Airport in Irving serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metro area in Texas, United States

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the North Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucio Fulci</span> Italian filmmaker (1927–1996)

Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and spaghetti Westerns, he garnered an international cult following for his giallo and horror films.

Stop Six is a neighborhood in south-east Fort Worth, Texas (USA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Motor Speedway</span> Motorsport track in the United States

Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.500-mile (2.414 km) quad-oval intermediate speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The track has hosted both NASCAR and IndyCar events annually since its inaugural season of racing in 1997. The track is owned by the city of Fort Worth's sports authority and is leased out by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) for racing, with Mark Faber currently serving as the track's general manager. The speedway is served by the nearby Interstate 35W and Texas State Highway 114.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Worth Convention Center</span> Arena in Texas, United States

The Fort Worth Convention Center is a convention center and indoor arena located in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The complex opened on September 30, 1968, and was expanded in 1983, 2002 and 2003.

The Miss Texas competition was founded in 1937 as a scholarship contest for young women. The winner represents Texas in the Miss America pageant; three winners have gone on to be crowned Miss America.

<i>City of the Living Dead</i> 1980 supernatural horror film by Lucio Fulci

City of the Living Dead is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Lucio Fulci. It stars Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo de Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, and Janet Agren. The film follows a priest whose suicide opens a gateway to hell that releases the undead. A psychic and a reporter team up to close it before All Saints' Day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colleyville Heritage High School</span> Comprehensive high school in Colleyville, Texas, , United States

Colleyville Heritage High School (CHHS) is a public secondary school in Colleyville, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The school is a part of the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District and serves freshmen through senior students in Colleyville and the surrounding areas of Tarrant County. In 2018 and onwards the school met standards for student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps, postsecondary readiness, and earned distinction in English language arts/reading, mathematics, history business computer engineering interior design politics philosophy parenting and science. The school had 2000 population between 2019-2020

Eunice Gray was a brothel and hotel owner and operator in Fort Worth, Texas from 1909 to 1962. She is best known for the belief that she was Etta Place, the former girlfriend of the famous outlaw Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, aka the Sundance Kid, who was allegedly killed in a shootout in South America in November 1908. For many years, there were no known photographs of Eunice Gray; but two photographs recently were found that appear to demonstrate that she could not have been Etta Place.

Nick Wells is a retired heavyweight boxer. He was selected a member of the All-American AAU boxing team for 1973, and was named the top heavyweight amateur boxer in the nation in 1973 by the National AAU Boxing Committee.

Six Flags Mall was a shopping mall that opened in August 1970 in Arlington, Texas. Arlington's first enclosed shopping center, it was named after the nearby Six Flags Over Texas theme park. When it opened, it was the largest shopping center in Tarrant County and the area's first regional shopping facility. A new owner acquired roughly one-third of the mall in December 2012 and announced plans to redevelop it as a Hispanic-oriented shopping mall called "Plaza Central" and, after resolving legal issues, reopened in October 2014, but closed again in February 2016. Demolition began in summer of 2016, but was slowed by a lawsuit filed by Cinemark. Two separate two-alarm fires occurred on February 6 and March 2 during demolition. The site was rebuilt as industrial space to accommodate suppliers to the GM auto assembly plant.

Phoebe Strole is an American actress who is best known for originating the role of Anna in the 2006 Broadway musical Spring Awakening.

<i>The Killing Kind</i> (1973 film) 1973 film by Curtis Harrington

The Killing Kind is a 1973 American psychological horror film directed by Curtis Harrington, and starring Ann Sothern, John Savage, Ruth Roman, Luana Anders, and Cindy Williams. It follows a young man who, after being released from prison for a sexual assault he did not commit, submits to his impulsive urge to seek revenge against those who wronged him. The film is based on a screenplay by Tony Crechales, whose screenplay was revised by producer George Edwards, an associate producer on Harrington's previous film, What's the Matter with Helen? (1971).

<i>12 Rounds 2: Reloaded</i> 2013 American film

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded is a 2013 American action film directed by Roel Reiné. The film stars Randy Orton, Tom Stevens, Brian Markinson and Cindy Busby. It is a sequel to 2009's 12 Rounds starring John Cena. Unlike the original which saw a theatrical release, the film was released on direct-to-DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on June 4, 2013.

Lyle Blackburn is an American musician and author. Blackburn has authored four books and either narrated or produced several documentary films related to cryptids, and has been a speaker at multiple cryptozoology and Bigfoot-related conventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Atatiana Jefferson</span> 2019 police manslaughter of a woman in Fort Worth, Texas

Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, a 28-year-old woman, was fatally shot inside her home by a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, in the early morning of October 12, 2019. Police arrived at her home after a neighbor called a non-emergency number, stating that Jefferson's front door was open. Police body camera footage showed officers walking outside the home with flashlights for a few minutes then one officer yells, "Put your hands up! Show me your hands!", while discharging his weapon through a window. Police found a handgun near Jefferson's body, which according to her eight-year-old nephew, she was pointing toward the window before being shot. On October 14, 2019, Officer Aaron Dean, the shooter, resigned from the Fort Worth Police Department and was arrested on a murder charge. On December 20, 2019, Dean was indicted for murder. Jefferson was black and the officer who shot her is white, prompting news outlets to compare Jefferson's shooting to the September 2018 murder of Botham Jean in nearby Dallas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judy Alter</span> American author and essayist

Judy Alter is an American novelist and author of both fiction and nonfiction for adults and young adults. Alter writes primarily about the history and literature of Texas and the American West, especially the experiences of women in the nineteenth century. She has also written sixteen cozy mysteries, primarily set in Texas. Over fifty of her young adult non-fiction books have been published for school libraries by Franklin Watts and Scholastic.

Sandra Leveson, also known as Sandra Leveson-Meares, is an Australian painter, printmaker, and teacher.

References

  1. 1 2 "Through The Fire". Vinegar Syndrome . Archived from the original on October 23, 2021.
  2. Price, Michael H. (June 22, 1986). "Talon signs Next for lead in crime thriller". Fort Worth Star-Telegram . p. 2D via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 Hancock, Orville (October 26, 1988). "First movie in can, 2 filmmakers turn to second thriller". Fort Worth Star-Telegram . pp. 1, 4 via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 Price, Michael H. (November 13, 1988). "'Through the Fire' delivers chills". Fort Worth Star-Telegram . p. 4 via Newspapers.com.
  5. Gates of Hell Part II: Dead Awakening [VHS]. ASIN   6304096860.
  6. The Gates of Hell Part II: Dead Awakening (VHS). Creature Features. CR 1226.