Netflix has released the official teaser for Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, introducing Ella Beatty as the infamous Massachusetts woman whose name became permanently linked to one of America’s most notorious unsolved murder cases.
The new season marks the fourth instalment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster anthology, following stories centred on Jeffrey Dahmer, Lyle and Erik Menendez, and Ed Gein.
This time, the series travels back to 1892.
Lizzie Borden was the daughter of wealthy businessman Andrew Borden and lived with her father, stepmother Abby and older sister Emma in Fall River, Massachusetts.
On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were found brutally murdered inside the family home.
Lizzie was subsequently arrested and charged with both killings.
The case became a national sensation.
But despite the enduring nursery rhyme that would eventually transform Lizzie into a symbol of axe murder, she was acquitted at trial in 1893. No one else was ever convicted, leaving the identity of the killer unresolved.
Netflix’s new interpretation is therefore not simply presenting a solved crime.
Instead, The Lizzie Borden Story explores the psychology, repression and family dynamics surrounding Lizzie before and after the murders, while examining how an accused young woman became one of the most enduring figures in American true-crime mythology.
The teaser presents the Borden household as a place defined by control, humiliation and suppressed anger.
Ella Beatty’s Lizzie appears trapped within the expectations imposed upon her by her family and the society around her, while her relationship with the family’s live-in maid, Bridget Sullivan, becomes increasingly important.
Vicky Krieps plays Bridget, with Charlie Hunnam portraying Andrew Borden and Rebecca Hall appearing as Lizzie’s stepmother, Abby.
Billie Lourd plays Lizzie’s older sister Emma, while Jessica Barden portrays actor Nance O’Neil, a friend who became associated with Lizzie later in her life.
For Beatty, the role also represents a significant first for the anthology.
Lizzie is the first woman to become the central figure of a season of Monster.
That shift appears fundamental to the new story.
Rather than focusing exclusively on the question of whether Lizzie committed the murders, the season explores female rage, repression and th
e restrictions placed upon women in the late nineteenth century.
The teaser reflects that approach through a mixture of restrained period imagery and sudden flashes of violence.
Elegant rooms, corsets and carefully controlled behaviour gradually give way to blood, fear and the unmistakable shadow of the axe that has followed Lizzie Borden’s name for more than a century.
Netflix describes the season as the story of a woman who refuses to remain imprisoned inside the life constructed for her, ultimately becoming an icon whose legend would outlive almost everyone involved in the original case.
That legend has already inspired countless books, films, television series and theories.
Yet the central question remains exactly where it was more than 130 years ago.
Who killed Andrew and Abby Borden?
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premieres globally on Netflix on September 17, 2026.
Watch the official teaser below.
