Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Taste Labs unveil Fright Nights Horror Quest. October 2, 2026 This October, the nightmare follows you home. Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Australian creative technology company Taste Labs have joined forces to launch Fright Nights Horror Quest, a month-long digital choose-your-own-adventure experience inspired by the original stories, characters and terrifying world of the Gold Coast's famed Fright Nights. Launching lastnight, 1 October at 6PM, Horror Quest invites fans to create their own character, enter the Fright Nights universe and make a series of choices that shape their journey - with a brand-new collectible trading card unlocked every night from October 1 through to Halloween on October 31. With story cards and character cards to collect across 31 nights, each card features different rarities determined by the choices players make throughout their adventure. Fans can hunt down the complete set, collect their favourite character cards or even have their cards printed and shipped directly to their door. Designed as a digital companion to the Fright Nights guest experience, Horror Quest gives fans another way to immerse themselves in the event's original stories, characters and lore throughout the Halloween season - whether they're at home on their phone or desktop, or inside the park on the Gold Coast. Renee Soutar, CMO, Village Roadshow Theme Parks, said: "Fright Nights has always been about immersive storytelling, bringing together compelling characters, detailed environments and live experiences that place its guests at the centre of the action. Fright Night's Horror Quest adds an exciting new dimension to that experience, allowing fans to discover more of the story around their visit to the park and continue engaging with the world of Fright Nights throughout October. "As audiences increasingly move between physical and digital entertainment, we are always looking at new ways to evolve the guest experience. This collaboration with Taste Labs gives us an opportunity to explore how digital storytelling can complement what happens inside the park, deepen engagement with the original Fright Nights stories and give fans even more reasons to be part of the event." Using their mobile or desktop, participants enter the Horror Quest world and make choices that determine how their character and story evolve. Those decisions then shape their personalised collectible cards, with each player building a unique collection based on their individual journey. But the adventure doesn't stop at the screen. Throughout Horror Quest, participants can uncover real-life rewards to redeem in the park, including the chance to earn tickets, annual passes and Fright Nights merchandise. In turn, a digital journey can lead fans straight back into the real-world Fright Nights experience. Taste Labs Co-Founder and CEO Alex Flamsteed said: "Fright Nights already has the most important ingredients: great storytelling, distinctive characters and a world that audiences genuinely want to explore. Technology gives Volume Media an opportunity to build new ways for fans to interact with that world without changing what makes it valuable in the first place. "What is particularly exciting is that digital and physical entertainment don't need to operate as separate experiences. Someone can encounter Fright Nights on the Gold Coast, continue discovering the stories at home, build a collection around their journey and potentially find themselves back inside the park through the rewards they uncover along the way. "For entertainment companies, that creates an opportunity to think differently about the lifecycle of an intellectual property. The relationship with an audience doesn't necessarily have to begin and end at a single event, release or visit. Done carefully, technology can create meaningful new touchpoints around existing IP and give fans more reasons to remain connected to the worlds they already love. "We are incredibly proud that an Australian company has had the opportunity to develop this experience with the Village Roadshow Theme Parks team, bringing together their storytelling and guest expertise with a new digital format designed to stimulate fandom." With a new chapter unlocking every night, Fright Nights Horror Quest gives fans 31 chances to return to the world of Fright Nights, make a different choice and discover what lies behind the next card. Fright Nights Horror Quest will officially launch online on Thursday 1 October at 6PM AEST.

Taste Labs, a startup with $18.5 million in funding, aims to train AI models to produce higher-quality creative work by teaching them to recognise good taste. The San Francisco company works with a network of about 1,000 "Tastemakers" — contractors in creative fields who evaluate AI outputs and create taxonomies of quality across design elements. CEO Thais Castello Branco argues current AI produces technically correct but aesthetically bland results. The startup is beginning with visual design, breaking down elements like typography, colour, and spacing into measurable components before expanding to copywriting, fiction, music, and cinematography. Investors say the company already generates tens of millions in revenue, working with major AI labs. Its first product is a Brand API that extracts and systematises visual components from company websites to ensure consistent AI-generated content.