Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Trailer Reveals Netflix’s Dark New Take on One of America’s Most Infamous Unsolved Murders
Netflix has unveiled the first trailer for Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, offering a disturbing glimpse at the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology.
The eight-episode limited series turns its attention to Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts woman who was accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe in 1892. Borden was acquitted the following year, no one else was ever charged, and the killings remain officially unsolved.
More than 130 years later, the mystery continues to fascinate — and Netflix’s new interpretation intends to examine not only the crime but how Borden became one of the most enduring figures in American true-crime history.
Ella Beatty takes on Lizzie Borden
Ella Beatty leads the series as Lizzie, marking the first time the Monster anthology has centred an installment on a female figure. Netflix describes Borden as the franchise’s first female “monster.”
The story follows Lizzie as the repressed daughter of a wealthy New England family, living in a household shaped by rigid expectations and strained relationships.
Vicky Krieps plays the family’s live-in maid Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, who becomes a significant figure in Netflix’s interpretation of Lizzie’s story.
Rather than presenting the case simply as another historical murder mystery, the series explores repression, power, sexuality and the restrictions imposed upon women during the period. Vanity Fair describes the adaptation as a darkly feminist reimagining incorporating horror, satire and melodrama.
The series explores why Lizzie Borden became an icon
Brennan explained that attitudes toward women in the late 19th century are crucial to the series.
At the time, women were widely viewed as physically and intellectually incapable of many things routinely associated with men. That cultural context became particularly significant during Borden’s sensational trial.
For Brennan, part of the enduring fascination is the gap between how famous the name Lizzie Borden has become and how uncertain the facts surrounding the case remain. He described it as a story almost everyone recognizes but few fully know.
That uncertainty gives the creators considerable dramatic territory to explore, but the production is also taking speculative liberties with a case that was never solved.
Charlie Hunnam and Rebecca Hall play Lizzie’s parents
Charlie Hunnam plays Lizzie’s father, Andrew Borden, while Rebecca Hall portrays her stepmother, Abby Borden.
Their murders on August 4, 1892, transformed Lizzie from a relatively unknown woman in Fall River, Massachusetts, into the central figure in one of the country’s most notorious criminal mysteries.
Borden was eventually tried and acquitted, leaving the question of responsibility unresolved. Vanity Fair notes that the new series uses that uncertainty to create a stylized interpretation rather than presenting itself as a definitive historical answer.
The wider ensemble includes Billie Lourd, Jessica Barden, Sarah Paulson and Joey Pollari, alongside Beatty, Hunnam, Krieps and Hall.
A major change for the Monster anthology
The Lizzie Borden Story follows three seasons focused on notorious male subjects.
The first installment examined Jeffrey Dahmer and became one of Netflix’s biggest English-language television successes. The second centred on Erik and Lyle Menendez, while the third explored Ed Gein and his influence on American horror.
Lizzie therefore represents a notable change in direction.
The series is using her case to examine the particular mythology surrounding women accused of extreme violence, while also looking at how Borden’s story has been repeatedly reshaped through popular culture.
More than a conventional retelling, the new season appears interested in the larger question of how an unsolved murder transformed an otherwise ordinary young woman into an American legend.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premieres September 17 on Netflix.