Petscop and Alternative Story Telling by Hunter Sheffer

As an English Literature major, I have spent countless hours reading and analyzing literary canon. While I love most of the works I’ve read, growing up in an age where the internet is easily accessible has exposed me to alternate forms of media that I feel have similar value to commonly celebrated literature and film. While the tides are constantly shifting on what society deems artistically valuable, it seems that indie internet creations, like games, videos, or independent writing—while receiving more attention than before—are still not taken as seriously as their more conventional mediums. The main work that comes to my mind when thinking about nuanced internet art projects is Tony Domenico’s Petscop. 

Petscop is a YouTube horror web series that ran from March 12, 2017, to September 2, 2019. The series is presented through a series of 24 Let’s Plays—videos documenting a playthrough—of a fictional, unreleased PlayStation One game, Petscop. The main character, Paul, receives the game from a mysterious fictional company, Garalina. Initially, Petscop is presented as an innocent but strange puzzle and creature collecting game. However, after inputting a code found on the box, the game shifts to an eerie, almost Lynchian, level called “The Newmaker Plane.” As Paul explores The Newmaker Plane, he is confronted with the idea of “rebirthing” and a character named Marvin’s previous attempts to kidnap his daughter, Care, who he believes was his lost childhood friend reborn. As the plot plays out, Marvin, or an AI imitating Marvin, utilizes Paul and the game to reenact the process of rebirthing Care. While there are multiple interpretations of what rebirthing is within Petscop, as it is intentionally left vague, one belief is that it is an expansion on a real-world pseudo-scientific therapy that attempted to treat attachment disorders and adverse behavior in children. This compression therapy has several adverse effects on children who have experienced it, including several fatalities. Within many of Domenico’s works, like the short story “Tapers,” a work that many names and concepts used in Petscop originated from, and the multimedia project “3D Worker’s Island,” child abuse and the psychological effects it has on its victims and the families of victims are extremely prominent themes. Interestingly, some of Domenico’s main inspirations while working on Petscop were other internet creepypasta, internet horror stories, surrounding video games like the Legend of Zelda story “Ben Drowned;” he also credits David Lynch and his film Inland Empire (2006) as major inspirations, stating, "too much is lost in that translation into words." 

If you are looking to step out of the comfort zone of conventional media and enjoy surreal, thematically dense horror, give Tony Domenico’s Petscop a try.