‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ Release Date & Time, Trailer, Plot, Cast

Netflix is preparing to add a new chapter to its true crime anthology, and this time the story reaches back to Victorian era New England. ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ is the upcoming fourth season of the biographical crime drama anthology series created by Ian Brennan, centering on murder suspect Lizzie Borden, played by Ella Beatty, who was tried and acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. It marks the first installment of the anthology to focus on an alleged female perpetrator.

The series arrives with a large ensemble cast and a premise built around repression, cruelty, and violence inside a wealthy household. Netflix’s official description states that Lizzie Borden kills her parents in a brutal axe murder that shocks the nation. Here is a full breakdown of when the series releases, who stars in it, what the story covers, and what has been shown in the trailers so far.

‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ Release Date

‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ is set to premiere on September 17 on Netflix. The season will release all eight episodes at once rather than on a weekly schedule. This follows Netflix’s standard rollout pattern for the anthology, allowing viewers to watch the entire season in one sitting if they choose.

Since every episode becomes available simultaneously, audiences will not need to wait week to week to follow the story from beginning to end. Viewers do not need to have watched the earlier seasons of ‘Monster’ to follow this installment, since each season focuses on a separate case. This makes the Lizzie Borden case a reasonable entry point for newcomers to the franchise.

The season becomes the fourth installment in the ‘Monster’ anthology, joining previous chapters centered on Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers, and Ed Gein. The anthology began in 2022 and has since built a reputation for turning notorious real life killers into major streaming events.

‘Lizzie Borden’ Story Cast Details

Ella Beatty takes on the title role in what is her most significant screen credit to date. Beatty is a Juilliard trained actor and the daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, and this role arrives after her television debut in Murphy’s ‘Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.’ Beatty previously worked with Murphy on four episodes of that series.

The supporting cast brings together several recognizable names from film and television. Vicky Krieps plays Bridget Sullivan, the Borden family’s live in maid, while Rebecca Hall plays Abby Borden, Lizzie’s stepmother, and Charlie Hunnam plays Andrew Borden, Lizzie’s father. The ensemble also includes Oliver Spenceman as Stephen, Billie Lourd as Emma Borden, Lizzie’s older sister, Jessica Barden as Nance O’Neil, an actor friend of Lizzie’s, and Joey Pollari in an undisclosed role.

Sarah Paulson also joins the season, continuing her long collaboration with Murphy across multiple projects. Paulson appears as 1990s serial killer Aileen Wuornos, suggesting the season spans more than one timeline, similar to the structure used in ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story.’ Paulson has previously appeared in numerous Murphy productions including ‘American Horror Story’ and ‘American Crime Story.’

‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ Plot

The season centers on the infamous unsolved case that has followed Lizzie Borden’s name for more than a century. In 1892, the 32 year old was accused of killing her father, Andrew Borden, and her stepmother, Abby Borden, with a hatchet at the family home in Fall River, Massachusetts. The case gripped the country and inspired the well known schoolyard rhyme about 40 whacks, yet it ultimately ended with a jury acquitting Borden of both murders. No one else was ever charged, and the crime remains officially unsolved to this day.

Netflix has framed the story around the psychological pressures inside the Borden household rather than a simple courtroom mystery. The official synopsis describes a repressed daughter of a wealthy New England family and her rebellious maid who find themselves trapped in a house built on humiliation and cruelty, and who escape into a fantasy of sex, power, and revenge. Bridget Sullivan’s relationship with Lizzie becomes increasingly important in the story as resentment toward her parents builds.

The historical record shows that Lizzie Borden’s notoriety extended well beyond her trial. She has been depicted in numerous film, television, and theater adaptations, including Lifetime’s ‘The Lizzie Borden Chronicles’ starring Christina Ricci, and the 2018 feature film ‘Lizzie’ starring Chloe Sevigny and Kristen Stewart. Borden died of pneumonia in 1927, though public fascination with her story never faded.

Trailer and Production Team

Netflix has released both a teaser and a full trailer ahead of the premiere. The teaser opens with a theater curtain revealing an empty stage with a piano playing a single repeated key, before shifting to an ominous voiceover reciting the familiar rhyme about Lizzie Borden and an axe. The clip closes on a blood covered Lizzie as a narrator states that when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41 whacks instead of 40.

The full trailer expanded on that atmosphere with more direct glimpses of the central relationship and the violence to come. It opens with Bridget declaring a line about blood, and offers the clearest look yet at the 1892 murders along with the question that has trailed Borden for more than a century, whether she actually committed the killings.

Behind the camera, the season is helmed by a small directing team working across its eight episodes. Ian Brennan created and wrote the installment and serves as executive producer alongside Ryan Murphy and a wider producing team, while Max Winkler directed episodes 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8, and Sarah Adina Smith directed episodes 4 and 6.

With its axe swinging trailer and a cast built around a genuine ensemble rather than a single star, ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ is shaping up to be one of the more ambitious swings the anthology has taken so far, and it will be worth hearing whether longtime true crime viewers think this retelling finally does justice to a case that has never fully been put to rest.