Fright Nights (previously Halloween Family Fun Nights and Halloween Fright Nights) is a seasonal Halloween event held at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.^[1] The event began in 2006 as Halloween Family Fun Night as a single night event and has since evolved into a major park event across a month.^[2][3] It features themed mazes, shows and rides. Fright Nights (formerly Fright Nites) also refers to the Halloween special event at Thorpe Park in Chertsey, Surrey, England, which opened in 2002.^[4]

Fellow Gold Coast theme park, Dreamworld was the first to hold a Halloween themed night event. This event occurred once in April 2004, rather than October when Halloween actually takes place.^[5] This event has never been held since.

In 2006, Warner Bros. Movie World picked up on the idea and decided to run a single Halloween Family Fun Night held on 31 October with a Scooby-Doo theme. Due to the event being sold out, the park extended the event to become a 3-night event.^[6][7]

This format remained until 2009 when Movie World decided to re-theme the event to target an older audience. The park advertised “extreme experiences at this event not suitable for children”.^[3] In 2010, Warner Bros. Movie World worked with Sudden Impact Entertainment and Lynton V. Harris to produce mazes based upon the Nightmare on Elm Street and Saw franchises.^[8] Sudden Impact also created the Psycho maze. On 20 September 2010, it was announced that “Freddy’s Nightmare Maze will be in Show Stage, the Saw Maze will be in a custom built area behind the Wild West Falls area and the Psycho 3D Maze will be in the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster foyer/entrance”.^[9] The SAW maze was originally due to be built in a sound stage, however, this was booked and a custom built space was built as a replacement.^[10]

Just after the conclusion of the 2010 event, it was announced that the event would return in 2011.^[11] In the middle of August 2011, Warner Bros. Movie World began to announce mazes for the 2011 event. On 1 September 2011, full details for the 2011 event were released with the event’s name changing to Fright Nights. The Saw and Psycho 3D mazes from 2010 will return alongside the new Zombie Apocalypse Maze (to be located in the adjacent Studio complex) and the new Arkham Asylum Maze (to be located in the show stage).^{[12][13][14][15]}

In 2012, the event returned with new mazes and a collection of live shows.^[16] The Psycho 3D Maze, the Les Damned de Burlesque show, and the Club Blood bar all returned. New mazes included The Film Vault, The Walking Dead Maze, and Hillbilly Slasher. New shows included the Creatures of Rock, Death Derby, and Thriller Dance.^[17][18]