Ryan Murphy is no longer under contract with Netflix, but as it had happened with the various American Horror and Crime went on even after leaving Disney, so the titles started on the platform can go on with new seasons. This is how after having told some of the most disturbing figures of the American black chronicle, Monster returns to Netflix with a story that sinks its roots at the end of the nineteenth century. The fourth season of the anthology of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan is dedicated to Lizzie Borden, the woman accused of killing with an axe the father and the stepmother in 1892 and then acquitted at the end of a trial became one of the most famous judicial cases in the United States.
To play it is Ella Beatty, at her first leading role in a series. Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story will be available on Netflix from September 17, 2026 with all eight episodes released simultaneously.
La trama
The story starts from the Borden family and his home in Fall River, Massachusetts, where Lizzie lives in a reality marked by repression, humiliation and psychological cruelty. Young Lizzie, daughter of a wealthy family, finds a form of complicity in the domestic Bridget Sullivan, played by Vicky Krieps. The two women, trapped in a oppressive family environment, develop a relationship that becomes more and more intense and take refuge in a fantasy made of desire, power and revenge.
The situation falls when Andrew Borden, Lizzie’s father, and his wife Abby Borden are brutally murdered. The crimes disrupt American public opinion and give rise to a judicial case destined to last in collective memory.
Lizzie is charged with murders, but at the end of the trial he is acquitted. It is precisely from this story that the series builds the myth of a woman who has become, over time, one of the most enigmatic figures of the American black chronicle.
Il cast
To play Lizzie Borden is Ella Beatty. In the cast we also find Vicky Krieps as Bridget Sullivan, the family maid, Charlie Hunnam as Andrew Borden and Rebecca Hall as Abby Borden, Lizzie’s stepmother.
Billie Lourd plays Emma Borden, Lizzie’s eldest sister, while Jessica Barden dresses up as Nance O’Neil, an actress friend of the protagonist. Among the performers is Joey Pollari, in the role of Lizzie’s uncle, John Vinnicum Morse.
A particularly curious presence is that of Sarah Paulson, who plays the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a character who existed in a completely different age since Wuornos acted in the late 1980s. His figure thus serves the authors to demonstrate the imprint Borden had in history and potential serial killers.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. Ella Beatty as Lizzie Borden in episode 404 of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
Il ritorno di Monster: i capitoli precedenti
The story of Lizzie Borden is the fourth chapter of the Monster anthology, which has changed the protagonist and criminal case every season. The project was born in 2022 with DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, dedicated to the serial killer played by Evan Peters. The series recounted the murders committed by Dahmer and, in parallel, tried to focus on the victims and institutional failures that allowed him to continue killing for years. The first season has achieved a huge success on Netflix, exceeding the billion hours displayed in the first 60 days.
In 2024 MONSTERS arrived: The story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, with Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch in the roles of the two brothers condemned for the murder of parents, José and Kitty Menendez. The second season told the case from different perspectives, including the trial and accusations of abuse suffered by the brothers during childhood.
The third chapter, Monster: The story of Ed Gein, instead, brought Charlie Hunnam on the screen as the Wisconsin criminal whose history helped inspire some of the most famous figures of cinema horror, from Psycho to Non-open that door and the silence of innocents. Hunnam, as we have seen, will pass from victim to executioner jumping in this fourth season that changes epoch and perspective.
Lizzie Borden tra cinema e tv
The Borden case had a huge echo at the time of the events, the murders of 1892 and the subsequent process received extensive coverage of the American press and helped to turn Lizzie into a figure that was permanently in popular culture.
His story has been told several times at the cinema, on television and at the theatre, including The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, with Christina Ricci, and the 2018 Lizzie film, starring Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart.
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