The name "Marius Damgaard" does not appear, until page 336. The place at the heart of things, Story Book River, is not mentioned, until page 353. And, though not apparent on a first reading, Marius has been met before, albeit under different guises, throughout his story. He is first "Moon," on page 5. Then he is "Will Pedersen," (patterned after Vilhelm Petersen, who illustrated the original Hans Christian Andersen stories!!!!) on page 37, and then he is "Sean," (a derivative of John, as is Hans!!!) on page 89.
When I first read Richard Montanari's 2007 novel, "Merciless," in 2009, I was blown away by the secrets revealed. I had no idea what was coming, and, after all the knowledge was gathered, when I thought back to it all, well, darlings, it blew my mind.
Nevertheless, I could not get Marius Damgaard out of my mind! And when I just reread Montanari's book again, last week, I was struck by him. He is my Favorite Fictitious Serial Killer, because he has the most poignant of motives--he wants, somehow, to permanently preserve the happiest memories of his childhood. I am not saying that what he ultimately does in right. But, who among us, has not felt that way, at one time or another????????
I have always felt "Merciless" should be sold to the movies. The production designers would have a field day with creating both the operating, and then decaying, Story Book River.
But the movie I would want from this book is very specific. My only criticism of the book is its title(s). "Merciless" is too generic, and really does not touch upon the story at hand. In the U.K., it was issued under the title "Broken Angels," which makes sense, only after one has read it!!!!!!!!!
I still feel that the title of this book should have been the one used by Mr. Montanari in his last section--"What The Moon Saw." So, from now on, what I write will be referenced under that title. What follows is a kind of "proposed story treatment for a proposed film." And this is where you have to decide to stop reading, or not. If you haven't read this novel, or feel you never will, go on. If you have not, but feel at some point you may, then I strongly advise you to stop here. And my gimmick for telling the story is different. I don't give one hoot for the detectives. I want to tell this entirely, from the point of view of Marius Damgaard. Who, after his brilliant turn in "Prisoners," should be played by Paul Dano, who would be just perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!
O.K!!!!!!!!! Here, we go!
"What The Moon Saw"
On April 2, 1805, in Odense, Denmark, was born a young, creative genius, named Hans Christian Andersen. At the age of 30, he began to publish the first of his volumes of fairy tales--stories of darkness, loneliness and social isolation--which struck a chord with the public, since 1835. One member of the public struck was a man named Damgaard. He went on to have a son, Frederik, to whom he ultimately gave his autographed copy of Andersen's tales. Frederik took it with him, when he immigrated to the United States, and married a woman named Elise. She was the practical one, he the creative dreamer--with no mental instability, and the skill to make those dreams real. They settled in somewhere in the woods of Southeastern Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia, where Frederik set out, and did, create a fictional, life sized recreation of Odense, Denmark, complete with amusements, which included fantasy cottages, giant story books, and attractions recreating some of the more memorable scenes from the Andersen stories, which patrons would see, riding through a canal tunnel--something like Disney's "It's A Small World," at his parks.
Story Book River, and its variations throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were the forerunners of Disneyland and such. Frederik Damgaard's creation flourished in the 30's, and was big during the 40's and 50's. By the time of the 60's, Disney was creeping up, and the whole family park craze was falling on hard times. Meanwhile, the Damgaards had, and raised, a daughter, whom they named Ann, after one of Andersen's characters, Ann Lisbeth! They did their best; Elise was practical and strict, Frederik comforting and loving. It didn't take. Ann became a tramp, fell into the drug scene, and got knocked up. In 1985, she gave birth to a boy, who was named Marius Damgaard. There is no indication of who named the child, but, soon after giving birth, Ann abandoned her son, and ran off, saying he was not "pretty enough." So Marius was raised by his grandparents. While there is no evidence of actual abuse, I believe Elise, in frustration, would lash out at him verbally, on occasion, saying how his mother abandoned him, because he was not pretty enough. A remark the boy came to absorb. His grandfather lavished on him all the love and comfort the women in Marius' life did not; encouraging his creativity, reading him the Andersen stories, and, of course, letting him help, paint and maintain, and show him how to run, Story Book River, during the magical time of the year when it was open--from Memorial Day to Labor Day, of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Things ought to have gone on in this way, and, if they had, I think Marius would have inherited Story Book River, and kept it going. But it was not to be. When Marius was seven, in 1992, his grandfather became seriously ill, and Marius was traumatized; so much so, his grandmother, who did not want to bring him to the hospital, was forced to, whereupon Marius did the first thing in his life indicating psychological trouble. He secretly extracted a vial of his grandfather's blood, and kept it in his room. The remnants of the only person who loved him, in his eyes. That, and the autographed Andersen book.
The following year, 1993, Frederik passed away, and things only got worse. Elise fell into depression, losing interest in everything, including Story Book River, which she had no love for, to begin with. Marius was traumatized, but Elise did not realize how so, until two years later.
In April of 1995, a lot of people went to nearby Fairmount Park, to enjoy the sunny, golden day. Two of those folk were little girls, Annmarie DiCillo and Charlotte Waite. Both nine years old on that very day, both dressed in white, and going to celebrate their birthdays. Annmarie was the daughter of Philadelphia detective Richard DiCillo. The girls went into the park that day-- but never came out. Days later, their bodies were found, under a tree, on some kind of built nest. Like the swans in an Andersen story, though no one knew that, yet! And the murder went unsolved. But, when Elise Damgaard read about it, something registered in her mind. She found out the truth from Marius--he had been in the park that day, saw the girls, felt "the swans needed protection," killed them, and built a nest. When Elise realized what she was dealing with, to protect both the community and her grandson, she placed him in a mental institution in upstate New York, at the age of 11!!!!!!! Like I said, there was no real abuse; for the eight years he remained there, until age 19, Elise would visit Marius every weekend. Credit to her!
But, when Marius reached age 19, in 2004, Elise passed away, and Marius was released to attend her funeral. He never went back, and, with the last person to give him some kind of love gone, Marius lost it. He began to fixate on Story Book River, which was facing demolition, as Elise had decided to get rid of it.
It was Marius' hope to recreate Story Book River. For him, during its day, the sight of the kind of families he wanted, and the happy children there, brought him a kind of happiness. The first truly sad day in his life, before the grandparents' deaths, was "the day the children stopped coming."
Marius, however was severely damaged by abandonment and betrayal. Which had something to do with his killing, and killing women. His first victim, whom he remade into Thumbelina, was Lisette Simon, a woman who worked at his hospital. Another victim, Sa'mantha Fanning, who was his Ann
Lisbeth, representing his mother's abandoning him, and who (and the abandoning way Sa'mantha regards her own infant son, Jamie!!!!) made the mistake of looking at him funny, whereupon he asked her, "Am I not pretty enough?" played into Marius' psychosis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The path of Marius' victims leads toward Story Book River, also strewn with decaying corpses of other victims--he murdered, in all, a total of nine people!!!!--which, in his distorted way, is how he hoped to bring back to the attention of the world this magical place he loved!!!!!!! And where he felt loved!!!!!!! His idea of bringing back attention is not a bad one, but the means in which he did would prove wrong, and only nail a coffin in Story Book River's existence. Because the park would only be remembered now as a place of horror!
And Marius talks of a dream of eventually going to Solvang, a village in California, settled in the early 19th century, by Danes, and constructed like a Danish village. And this is where my version and Montanari's differ.
Someone should have reached out to Marius, right after his grandfather died. Someone who had the capacity, like Frederik, to understand the creativity, and make him feel loved. Maybe then, he would have tried to make a go of Story Book River, and, when he could not, taken the money he would have got for the property, and left to start a new life in Solvang.
In my version of "What The Moon Saw," Marius gets his wish. The murders are solved, but pinned on Roland Hannah, a pastor, and his half brother, Charles Waite, who was Charlotte's damaged twin brother. While Marius has been murdering in the name of love, they have been killing in the name of hate--murdering every known sex offender as a way of getting back at Charlotte, certain they will eventually get to Charlotte's killer. Which Marius understood, and which is why Roland is eventually killed, though Charles gets away. With Roland dead, and Charles in the mental institution, the murders are "solved," and Marius goes to Solvang, where he lives out his days in the happy contentment of his childhood.
As Sondheim said in "Sweeney Todd"--"If only angels could prevail, we'd be the way we were."
Would we???????????????????????
And could we retain our sanity?????????????????????
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