Ten of the Spookiest Events Happening In and Around Brisbane This Halloween

After first spooking out southeast Queensland residents back in 2018, the unnerving Séance installation is returning to the region. This time around, it’s bringing its big, white container to HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast — from Wednesday–Sunday between Thursday, October 28–Sunday, November 14.

Unlike most shipping containers in the city, this one isn’t being used to transport furniture. And, given that the word ‘séance’ is written on the side in black, it’s definitely more than a little ominous. Participants will be able to take a seat inside, and then put on a headset. You’ll next be told to put both hands on the table. The lights go out, leaving the place in absolute darkness — and, for 20 uneasy minutes, you’ll be taken on an immersive journey led only by touch and sounds. Expect to feel confused, repulsed and struck with temporary claustrophobia. According to organisers, numerous participants have bailed halfway through sittings in the past.

Putt putt fans of Brisbane — so, everyone in Brisbane — it’s time to do the monster mash while you’re tap, tap, tapping your way around a mini golf course. This city of ours is home to more than a few places to unleash your short game, but only one of them keeps busting out seasonal theming and giving you a reason to celebrate special occasions with a putter in your hand.

Until Sunday, October 31 (naturally), Victoria Park’s mini golf course is home to all things frightening. If a haunted house was to meet up with putt putt, this is what it’d look like. So, you’ll be tap, tap, tapping your way around greens with names like Pumpkin Patch, Witch’s Way, The Freaky Forest and Skeleton’s Graveyard. Obviously pumpkins feature heavily — plus skeletons, spiderwebs, grave headstones, ghosts and all the usual scary paraphernalia.

Image: Pandora Photography.

Take a trip to A Midnight Visit and you’re guaranteed an eerie night out. Imagine a fully immersive theatre experience with a choose-your-own-adventure twist — and lots of macabre nods to Edgar Allan Poe — and you’ll have some idea of what to expect. It’s been delivering exactly that to Brisbanites since July, all in a disused Fortitude Valley warehouse; however, it has something a little special up its sleeves for Halloween.

Between Friday, October 29–Sunday, October 31, the captivating part performance, part playground and part film set experience is hosting a Halloween Festival. There’ll be more characters prowling its halls, and more circus, dance and music, too. Halloween-themed cocktails, DJs and live tunes at the onsite Raven’s Rest bar, and even fortune-telling and magic are also on the agenda. Obviously, this is the perfect time to plunge into A Midnight Visit‘s unsettling 36-room setup, and to soak in the show’s intricate design, epic scale and explosive energy.

Image: A Midnight Visit by Anna Kucera.

The end of October is upon us, and that means one thing: it’s time to get a little evil. And what better way than to revisit the horror movie trilogy that made everyone fear cabins in the woods, be wary of dusty old books, warm to a chainsaw-wielding, shotgun-blasting hero, and take notice of director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell.

Yes, we’re talking about 1981’s The Evil Dead, 1987’s Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn and 1992’s Army of Darkness (it’d really be best if we all forgot that the 2013 remake ever happened). To mark the spookiest time of the year, Palace Cinemas is treating audiences to a big-screen viewing of all three OG flicks — screening at Palace James Street at 6.30pm on Friday, October 29 and at Palace Barracks at 7pm on the same date.

Pups and pints: it’s a winning combination. And, it never goes out of style. Brisbanites keep going barking mad for downing beers with their doggos, so The Brightside’s Barks & Brews sessions just keep coming back — but the event on Sunday, October 31 won’t just be your usual canine-friendly boozy afternoon.

Folks of the two- and four-legged variety, it’s time to make another date with a few beverages — and with all things spooky. Barks & Brews Halloween Edition will celebrate the date in a pup-appropriate way. Obviously, that means dressing up your doggo in its scariest (but still cutest) outfit, with prizes on offer for the best costume.

Wandering around a market while the sun shines is all well and good, but there’s something extra appealing about the nighttime variety. Happening every Friday and Saturday night in Brisbane’s north BITE Markets fits the bill. And, it serves up plenty of food, because that’s what every night market attendee really wants.

A trip to Nolan Drive in Morayfield comes with a little something extra on Saturday, October 30, however — because that’s when the BITE Markets Halloween Spooktacular is adding some scares to the place. This is a family-friendly affair with scavenger hunts and a monster mash disco, but if you were thinking about hitting up a market anyway and you love Halloween, consider it a two-for-one kind of event.

When you’re a bar that nods to all things spooky in your name, and you boast more than a couple of monster-themed pinball and arcade machines, then you’re going to like the end of October. Netherworld does, of course. Indeed, the Valley pub celebrates Halloween in the expected style each and every year.

So, what’s on the agenda? Reflecting the kind of year 2020 has served up, Netherworld is hosting a couple of different Halloween events. Some of us want to mark the occasion on the actual date, and some of us want to have some themed fun across the days leading up to it. Here, you can do both — thanks to the Doomed Sideshow on Thursday, October 28, The Night Before Halloween party on Saturday, October 30 and A Netherworld Halloween‘s festivities on Sunday, October 31.

Who won the very last Halloween Heist before Brooklyn Nine-Nine said goodbye forever? What costume did Rosa Diaz wear the first time that she took part? Which detective asked a criminal to help them win? Who was crowned the ‘Queen of the Nine-Nine’? If you can answer all of the above — and you love both Brooklyn Nine-Nine and halloween — then you’re set for this trivia night. Yes, it’s all about the hit cop sitcom we all know, love and watched eight seasons of. And, the one that goes all out when it comes to the spookiest time of the year.

Every time trivia sessions dedicated to B99 hit town, places are snapped up faster than Terry can snap open a tub of yoghurt. This time, you need to register in advance for Fritzenberger’s trivia night at its South Bank joint, and then Sunday, October 31 can be your night for glory (that can also be the title of your sex tape if you’d like).

If you’re looking for the shindig to end all shindigs this Halloween, don’t just head to the Valley — hop aboard the Hogwarts Express. Or pretend to, complete with all the Harry Potter costumes such a journey needs. That’s what’s on the spooky agenda at Retro’s, which is combining its end-of-October celebrations with plenty of love for a certain wizarding franchise.

Of course, this Harry Potter Halloween party is a thoroughly grown-up affair. Really, it’s just an excuse to help whittle down your costume options, and to add some nostalgia to your night. It all takes place from 7pm on Saturday, October 30, so you can also think of it as the warm-up to the actual date.

When October rolls around each year, there’s really only one appropriate thing to watch. That’d be horror movies, horror movies and more horror movies — all leading up to Halloween, obviously. Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival clearly loves the genre no matter the time of year; however, in 2021, it’s showcasing its lineup of fear-inducing flicks in the two weeks right before the spookiest day of them all. So, from Monday, October 18–Sunday, October 31, you can get your scares at its virtual fest. And yes, by jumping online, that means the event is accessible nationally as well.

This is A Night of Horror’s 13th fest, fittingly, and it comes with an unsettling program of shorts and features. From the full-length titles on the bill, highlights include the UK’s Lair, about an occult expert and skeptic with a pal who thinks he’s possessed; New Zealand’s The Turn of the Screw, the latest big-screen adaptation of Henry James’ novel; and the Aussie-made My Cherry Pie, which nods back to 80s slasher fare — plus dreamlike Austrian effort Memory, and the supernatural and sinister Sunod from The Philippines.