loved

To Universal Monsters fans, the Dark Universe is everything we’ve wanted to see come alive in a horror theme park dedicated to the terrifying and strange. Without the films, there would be no Universal Pictures or the first Universal Studios theme park, for that matter.

Epic Universe’s Darkmoor is a monument to the monster legacy at the studio, and it’s befitting of all the creature comforts in store for fans. The moment you enter, Danny Elfman’s score for the land echoes through the nooks and crannies of the cobblestone streets and bounces off the brick buildings. You’ll see little homages to various characters, such as Dr. Jekyll’s Apothecary, which we wish was a real shop. There’s a number of walk around characters that share the lore of the monsters, and you might run into the bandaged form of the Invisible Man, or even the Bride and the Monster. On the attractions, the first monsters of the franchise including the Hunchback of Notre Dame (look up when the bell tolls) and the Phantom of the Opera make their presence felt.

The haunting worlds of original films are canon but do get expanded on in intriguing ways. When you meet the Monster you find out he’s just the Bride’s friend, and the experiment from the James Whale movie she was made for lies dead in the queue of Monsters Unchained.

To really get the sense of what those stories would have evolved to in the modern day, you actively have to pay attention to all the small details. When you get there, Ygor asks you to volunteer to help Victoria Frankenstein bring glory back to the family name on her quest to control Dracula (yeah, good luck sis). And even the vampire familiars at Das Stakehaus echo the sentiment that there’s no tying that undead man down.

Over at the Burning Blade Tavern ,you get more about the villagers’ sentiments about who the real monsters are in Darkmoor: the creations or the humans who seek to overpower them? I wish I’d been able to spend more time in the area to talk to every performer to get as much lore out of them as possible because it’s dense. And we only got a few hours there to gather as much spooky intel as possible and try the food and do the Darkmoor Monster Makeup Experience. I am already itching to go back!

To an extent, for the casual theme park fan, it might be a bit much to really wrap their heads around when they ride Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment. You do get to see that Victoria has continued the work of her family name in many ways including making her own version of the monster. But there’s also video clips that play of her and Ygor capturing the Creature From the Black Lagoon and the Wolf Man—there might be more clips but we went through the queue rather quickly. I imagine that she thinks that by making some sort of Monster Squad she’ll live up to her family reputation but might be in over her head. We can’t wait to see how the world continues to grow as more people visit Darkmoor.

Check out the gallery below to get a taste of the fun details and Easter eggs!

Epic Universe is now open at Universal Studios Orlando. Travel and accommodations were provided for the purposes of this review.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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