Fright Nights is the annual Halloween event hosted by Warner Bros. Movie World on Australia’s Gold Coast in Queensland. What began in 2006 as a single-night “Halloween Family Fun Night” built around a Scooby-Doo theme sold out so quickly that organizers extended it to three nights, and the event has since grown into a month-long fixture on the park’s October calendar.
By 2009, Fright Nights had shifted toward an older audience, trading family-friendly costumes for experiences the park itself describes as “not suitable for children,” and it began partnering with professional maze production teams to build out its scare zones. Over the years that followed, it licensed horror-film properties including Nightmare on Elm Street and Saw in 2010, The Walking Dead in 2012, and The Conjuring in 2022, before the 2025 lineup leaned mostly on original in-house maze concepts alongside a single licensed DC Comics attraction.
Stats at a Glance
- Venue: Warner Bros. Movie World
- Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
- Type: Halloween haunted-maze event
- Began: 2006
- Season: Select nights each October
- 2025 Mazes: 5 (Eternal Dark, Krypt of Kain, Circurse, Hellship, DCeased)
- Famous For: A mix of original haunted mazes and licensed-IP attractions (past years featured Saw, The Conjuring, and DC)
The Mazes and Scare Zones
Each year’s lineup rotates through a handful of walk-through mazes staged across the park. The 2025 edition featured five mazes built inside themed precincts with actors, sets, and effects designed to disorient guests as they move through. Four of them — Eternal Dark (an alien-infected derelict spacecraft), Krypt of Kain (a ritual-killing basement beneath the park’s Hotel of Horrors), Circurse (the burned ruins of a murderous circus), and Hellship (a cursed cruise-liner wreck) — were original concepts built for the park. The fifth, DCeased, was the year’s sole licensed maze, based on the DC Comics series of the same name and themed around superheroes infected by an anti-life plague.
A Gold Coast October Tradition
Fright Nights runs on select nights throughout October, with the park’s regular rides and attractions staying open alongside the Halloween additions so guests can combine coasters with scares in a single visit. Entertainment has included live stunt and burlesque-style shows plus a paid “Ultimate Terror Tour” that takes guests behind the scenes of the maze builds, making the event one of the larger Halloween theme-park productions in a region where Halloween isn’t traditionally a major holiday.
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Rub-on sunscreen that fits in a pocket — reapply in the queue without greasy hands on the lap bar.
Folds into its own pocket. Pop it on when the storm rolls in and the rides reopen to short lines.
Keeps your phone strapped to you, not in a loose-article bin. Zip it before the lift hill and walk straight off the exit ramp.
Fright Nights FAQs
When is Fright Nights held each year?
Fright Nights runs on selected nights in October, typically opening in the evening around 6 pm while the rest of Warner Bros. Movie World remains open during the day.
Where does Fright Nights take place?
The event is held at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, which has hosted Fright Nights since 2006.
Are the Fright Nights mazes based on horror movies?
It varies by year. The 2025 lineup leaned mostly on original in-house maze concepts, with only one licensed attraction, DCeased, based on the DC Comics series, while past years have licensed franchises like Saw and The Conjuring.
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Photo: orangetaki / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.