A human brain during infancy is quite impressionable, and often, the events that take place during that period of time leave a long-lasting impact. The Park Maniac makes us privy to the life of a criminal named Francisco de Assis Pereira, who murdered and sexually abused many women in the late 90s. The man was ultimately caught by the authorities, and the world came to know about his twisted sensibilities once his views and opinions came to light after many leading newspapers published his story. Much of what’s shown in the film happened in real life, though Mauricio Eca and L.G. Bayao have taken a few creative liberties just to make the narrative more engaging. Francisco was born in Sao Paulo, and at a very early age, he was molested by his own relatives. Later in his youth, he entered into homosexual relationships, but the kind of bad sexual experiences he had with his partners made him feel that pain was an inevitable consequence when one chose to give into their carnal desires.
The concept of deriving pleasure out of a sexual activity was alien to him. These things weren’t shown in the film, but I believe they did end up playing a huge role in shaping Francisco’s sensibilities. There was a different side of him that came out when he saw a vulnerable woman. Martha, Elena’s sister, told her in the film that a man like Francisco was always brilliant when it came to manipulating a person. In real life, Francisco had the quality of first being able to spot a target and then being able to convince her to trust him. I mean, imagine the kind of persuasiveness a man must have when a girl who does not know him agrees to come with him to a forested area even when she knows the dangers involved with it. It is true that most of the time, Francisco told these women that he was a photographer working for a huge cosmetic brand and that he was on the lookout for expressive faces who would be willing to do a photoshoot with him.
Also, I believe Francisco was a very good mind reader. He knew by looking at somebody what they were going through. He knew how to tap into their insecurities or give them the assurance that doing the photoshoot would help them in more than one way. I mean, a lot of times, it was the money that lured the girls, but often, it was also what he made them feel during that brief conversation he had with them. I believe Francisco was suffering from major mental disorders. It is accurately shown in the film that he transformed into a beast after he took the girls to the park. In real life, the survivors gave their testimony, and they told the law enforcement authorities how they felt that there were two people residing inside his body. Francisco was not very good-looking conventionally, but his charm lay in the way he conducted himself. He had irresistible appeal and the quality to engage someone in a conversation. A woman knows the kind of world she lives in, and so she always has her guard up. I believe that women are very intuitive because, for ages, and be it any region, the world, in general, has been very hostile to them. But still, this predator managed to win their trust, and that made me realize the kind of manipulation he was capable of. After he took the girls to the park, he first sexually assaulted them and then killed them using a shoelace, pretty much like it was shown in The Park Maniac.
I don’t know if Elena’s character is based on a real-life journalist or if she is an amalgamation of all the journalists who covered the crime and reported on it, but I am quite sure that everyone who has researched the case closely would have felt quite affected by it. I am pretty sure that the media would have sensationalized the case, and in the game of TRP, somewhere, the voice of the victims would have been lost. It is accurately depicted in The Park Maniac that Francisco wanted to get famous. I don’t know if he actually maintained a diary or not, but during his testimony, he made it clear that he didn’t mind the path he walked on, as long as it took him to his destination, i.e., being famous. We live in a world where, at times, people defy logic and prove through their actions how twisted the sensibility of a human being can be. After killing all those women and literally tormenting them, Francisco garnered a lot of popularity, and it was said that he had a lot of admirers who used to write to him on a regular basis when he was in prison. As shown in the film, Francisco was caught in Itaqui after a fisherman named Joan Carlos Villaverde got to know about his real identity and then reported him to the authorities. The court gave him the harshest punishment possible and sentenced him to 268 years in prison. However, the maximum sentence that could be awarded during that time (1998) under the Brazilian Legal Justice system was 30 years, so The Park Maniac will be released in the year 2028. I hope the administration takes some active measures to keep a check on his activities and his movements because I don’t think that a man like him can ever change. It would be a sad day for the survivors when Francisco roams free in the world, but then the rule of law is the same for everybody, and not much can be done about it.
