Hide-n-Shriek Symbol Analysis

Peter’s fantasies of taking revenge against his bullies escalate when he designs a video game called Hide-n-Shriek, which comes to symbolize the dangers of vengeance. Although Peter gets average grades in school, he is a smart kid and has a particular talent as a computer programmer. Yet the ends to which he puts this talent are highly suspect. The game is disturbing for several reasons: it is set in a school that looks just like Sterling High, features a protagonist who resembles Peter, and is defined by the aim of killing as many “jocks” and “bullies” as possible. Designing the game is clearly a stepping stone toward the acts of violence Peter commits in reality, as illustrated by the similarity between Hide-n-Shriek and the actual school shooting. In this sense, the game is taken by many as evidence that Peter was not suffering from PTSD and dissociation when he committed the shooting, but rather was a deliberate, cold-blooded killer.

At the same time, there is also an argument to be made that the game doesn’t prove that Peter deliberately planned the shooting. Firstly, he doesn’t build and play it alone, but does so alongside his best friend, Derek Markowitz. Derek doesn’t seem disturbed by the game, and even encourages Peter to make it. Yet Derek himself does not anticipate or participate in the shooting, and is horrified when Peter does so. Hide-n-Shriek thus also becomes a symbol of anxiety around video games and the cultural glorification of violence. It raises the question of how seriously revenge fantasies should be taken, and the dangers of ignoring them altogether. The game suggests that even fantasies of revenge can be highly dangerous, as they may lead to action taken in reality.