Tech Or Treat: 5 Ways To Make A High-Tech Halloween

Technology scary. We’ve seen Terminator 2, so we know full well that new tech has no qualms about wiping out the human race in a nano-second. We should rightly be terrified of anything that’s remotely cutting edge, as it’s only a matter of time before it makes plans to destroy us all. Be afraid, be very afraid.

But maybe we should embrace the fear instead. It’s time to stop cowering in the corner of your room – a wide-eyed and sweaty mess – as your virtual assistant rules your life with a demonic, digital fist. Step up and walk head-first into that Skynet nuclear fire with no worries or trepidation. Because this Halloween, you should be using this new technology to scare the bits out of your fellow human being.

Glowy Zoey

Since the above video went viral in 2013, LED costumes have become a very real possibility for Halloween outfits. Simple, yet effective, these costumes are pretty startling when worn in the darkness. And they’re downright terrifying when they’re modeled by crying children who are running after you.

LED costumes are fairly inexpensive, too, the Glowy Zoey range being the most pricey at around £70. But other cheaper variants can cost as a little as £20-£30. Or you could make your own of course. And there’s nothing more terrifying than a poorly-made LED costume that catches on fire, is there?

VR You Scared Yet?

We’re living in the second age of Virtual Reality at the moment. With the Oculus Rift, Google Daydream and Playstation VR on the market, there are plenty of opportunities to enter into an immersive VR world. Which inevitably means there are plenty of scary VR games out there too. Such as Layers of Fear: Solitude:

Quite why you’d want to take the already horrifying world of Layers of Fear, and make it surround you in 360 degrees is anyone’s guess. But if this idea floats your boat (oh, this idea floats – all the ideas float on this list), then you can buy it for less than a tenner to play on the Google Daydream. But don’t blame us if you virtually pee yourself.

Digital Decorations

Decorating houses for Halloween is not often the ‘done thing’ for those of us from the UK. Unlike our American cousins, we don’t like to commercialise the season of the witch. We much prefer to perform ritual sacrifices to Beelzebub in the privacy of our own living rooms, thank you very much.

But digital decorations might tempt us from our reserved, devil-worshiping nature. For the cost of a digital projector (which could be as low as £70) and the right creepy video, you can happily create the illusion of horrifying creatures patrolling your house. And hey, it’s a great way to ward off potential dim-witted burglars too. If only Macaulay Culkin had these bad-boys in 1990…

Drone Clowns

The invention of the drone has changed our lives. Well, it hasn’t quite yet but it will. Soon, our skies will be lit up with the incessant hum of  Amazon delivery drones. And if that wasn’t scary enough, you could always put a clown costume on one of them and fly it around your neighbourhood.

We do not approve of this in any way shape or form, though. And if we’re kind of honest, we were rooting for the dog in that video to rip the horrible clown drone to shreds. But if you insist on being that irritating kind-of-person at Halloween, then you can pick up a cheap drone for around £50 and a clown costume for the price of your very soul.

Alexa/Siri

Look, if you really want high-tech scares this Halloween then look no further than your own virtual assistant. These creepy personalities live inside your smartphone and inside your house. And they know everything about you. They even talk about you behind your back.

For just a couple of hundred quid then, you can let Alexa invade your personal space and let her learn. Learn about the nature of humanity until one day, she decides she’s learnt enough. And she makes the call that she no longer understands our questions of humanity and shuts us down. Permanently.