We’ve been seeing a lot of excellent fan trailers recently, including a Joker mashup and a tease of what a Beetlejuice 2 could look like. The latest effort comes from YouTube channel Deformed Lunchbox, and ingeniously pitches Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones against the Cenobites in the brilliantly titled Indiana Jones and the Curse of Hellraiser. The video, which you can catch above, does a good job of stitching together darker moments from the soon-to-be-extended Indiana Jones franchise with the gore of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser.
In the fan trailer, Indy comes across the Lament Configuration puzzle box through an archaeological dig, which lifts elements from Raiders of the Lost Ark‘s search for the Ark of the Covenant. The box is edited into the iconic scene of Indy and the golden icon from Raiders, while we also get shots of Ford under pressure in Temple of Doom, which fortunately has a lot of scenes with a hellish red color scheme.
The video’s producers certainly don’t shy away from including some of the Hellraiser series’ most brutal moments, either, while the labyrinths of Hell do a good job of matching underground scenes from Indy’s adventures. In addition, the fan trailer doesn’t have to work too hard to remind us that the Indiana Jones movies have their fair share of gore, although perhaps not at the same level as Hellraiser. A few stray scenes from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull aside, the video also reveals some surprising stylistic similarities between the two franchises.
We even get a faux synopsis for the film, which reads as follows:
“Dr. Indiana Jones is back! This time, he has been commissioned by a strange agency to find an ancient puzzle box said to contain the mysterious power of Hellraiser. When Indy finds the box and unlocks its evil secret, he accidentally unleashes Pinhead and the Cenobites among earth. The Cenobites kill millions, including all of Indiana Jones’ family and friends back home in Princeton, New Jersey. Pinhead raises all of the damned souls of people Indy has killed over the years — and sends them to torment him! Indiana Jones nearly goes insane. Can he keep it together and destroy the Cenobites? Or will Hell’s wrath overtake the world? Can Indy undo the destruction and chaos from hell? Will humanity prevail?!”
While it’s (very) unlikely we’ll ever see a mashup like this, the idea of Indiana Jones facing off against Pinhead and co. makes a weird kind of sense, given that both franchises often revolve around quests for power and experience that go badly. What do you think of Indy vs. the Cenobites, though? Sound off below with your thoughts.
