Thank you for your feedback! I’m indeed heavily influenced by Danny Elfman, and I explicitly asked myself while composing, “What would Danny Elfman do?” to bring more variety and try to be more cinematic. It’s funny how noticeable it is.
Regarding the mixing issues, I think I may have overused saturation on my tracks and made some poor decisions during the mixing process. I boosted the high frequencies and reduced the bass, so it’s possible the track sounded much better before the mix. I must have been too heavy-handed with the processing. It’s great to receive feedback to help me improve!