Danny Elfman composing Dark Universe music (again)

“It’s Alive!” … with Music

Music and sound effects are important tools of bringing a theme park to life. That notion will be true in more ways than one inside Dark Universe, the world themed to Universal Classic Monsters at new Epic Universe park (opening next year at Universal Orlando Resort).

Film composer Danny Elfman confirmed he will write (or perhaps already has written) music for Dark Universe, noticed by Geo Zaroff on X.

“The Universal Monsters have always been such a big part of my life,” Elfman wrote in an Instagram Story posted on June 24, 2024. “I’m grateful and honored to have been chosen to compose the music for the new Dark Universe in @universalorlando. I can’t wait to go!!!”

Today marks the first official confirmation of Elfman’s involvement with Epic Universe, though Deadline laid out a few clues in a May 2023 interview with the composer. In that article, Deadline quoted Elfman as working on “monster music” for what Deadline broadly referred to as a “theme park in Orlando.”

Elfman has not mentioned which sections or attractions of Dark Universe will contain his music specifically. The area will feature a dark ride (Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment), a roller coaster (Curse of the Werewolf), and various dining and retail locations. Elfman’s work could be part of any or all of these entities, not to mention the area’s background music loop.

Dark Universe Redux

If we had a nickel for every time Danny Elfman wrote music for Universal to be used in a project called Dark Universe, we’d have two nickels — which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?

In 2017, Elfman wrote an instrumental theme for the logo of a different Dark Universe: the movie series of the same name that Universal Pictures attempted and failed to launch with “The Mummy” starring Tom Cruise. (Elfman only wrote the film’s logo music; Brian Tyler composed the entirety of the movie’s soundtrack.)

At the time, Elfman said:

I grew up on monsters. Monsters were my life, and these iconic Universal Monsters were almost like my family. I simply wouldn’t be the same without them.

When I got the opportunity to compose a theme for the Dark Universe logo, of course I jumped at it. What could be more fun than connecting to this world that has always been so deeply imbedded in my psyche?

I tried to find something that was new, but still had some connections with the past — the origins — at least in a subtle way; something that was looking forward to a creative, fertile, imaginative future that Dark Universe will enter, and at the same time saluting the heritage of the tragic heroes (or anti-heroes) of my childhood.

To the Monsters!!!!” 

Universal Pictures press release, May 2017

It remains to be seen if Elfman’s 2017 theme will be used in Epic Universe’s music.

Danny Elfman in Theme Parks

Elfman previously scored the music for Mystic Manor, a dark ride at Hong Kong Disneyland in China. Take a ride and hear Elfman’s theme for the attraction in our Mystic Manor POV:

By means of repurposing music Elfman originally wrote for movies or television, his scores have also been part of various attractions themed to “Beetlejuice” and “The Simpsons” at Universal parks over the years, as well as Haunted Mansion Holiday (an extension of “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”) at Disneyland Park in California and Tokyo Disneyland in Japan.

Explore the Attractions of Dark Universe

When guests visit Epic Universe and step into Dark Universe, they’ll encounter the village of Darkmoor, where all of the Universal Classic Monsters films collide. Discover the attractions of Dark Universe and take a peek at construction progress in our previous story:

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