“There’s nothing wrong with blood. Blood is power. Blood is freedom.” So begins the deliciously dark trailer for Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, and honestly, tis the season for bloody good sapphic stories.
The visuals, the costumes, the repressed desire and, of course, the gore already look incredible. Then the words “Hell hath no fury like a woman with an axe” flash across the screen, making the new season’s intentions perfectly clear.
Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology returns Sept. 17 with Ella Beatty picking up the axe as Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892.
Lizzie Borden Gets a Bloody Queer Retelling
This season follows Lizzie and Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, the Borden family’s rebellious live-in maid, as they find themselves trapped inside a wealthy New England home built on cruelty, repression and humiliation.
The women seek an escape through a fantasy of sex, power and revenge. Then Lizzie’s father, Andrew Borden, and stepmother, Abby Borden, are brutally murdered with an axe.
Lizzie was tried and acquitted of the killings, but the mystery has followed her for more than a century. Her story became American folklore, fueled by a schoolyard rhyme and persistent speculation about her private life and rumored relationships with women.
Beatty said the season uses Lizzie’s story to investigate the forces that can push women toward violence.
“Every season of Monster has been an exercise in understanding the person’s psychology,” she told Netflix’s Tudum. “Are they born or are they made? I knew from the beginning that Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan were really interested in exploring what brings a woman to the point of violence.”
Who Else Is Joining the Borden Household?
Vicky Krieps stars as Bridget, whose relationship with Lizzie appears to be at the center of the season’s sapphic story. Krieps previously appeared in Phantom Thread and the anthology’s third installment, Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
Charlie Hunnam, who played Ed Gein last season, returns in an entirely different role as Lizzie’s father, Andrew. Rebecca Hall portrays Lizzie’s stepmother, Abby, while Billie Lourd plays Lizzie’s older sister, Emma.
Jessica Barden joins the cast as actor Nance O’Neil, a real-life friend of Lizzie’s who has long been rumored to have shared a romantic relationship with her.
Together, the cast brings Lizzie’s claustrophobic world to life, one filled with family resentment, forbidden desire and enough tension to make an axe look like the least dangerous thing in the room.
Sarah Paulson Has the Trailer’s Final Word
Just when it appears the trailer has revealed all its bloody secrets, Sarah Paulson arrives as Aileen Wuornos.
Wuornos was not directly connected to Lizzie or the Borden murders. Instead, she appears in scenes set decades later as the series traces Lizzie’s influence through generations of female violence.
Between 1989 and 1990, Wuornos, a sex worker, killed seven men in Florida. She was convicted of six murders and executed by the state in 2002. Her case attracted national attention and sparked conversations about gender, violence and her treatment within the criminal justice system.
“The show is exploring a legacy of female rage and reaction to the set of circumstances that they are presented with,” Beatty said. “I think there’s a connection [between Borden and Wuornos] that Ryan and Ian were interested in mapping and exploring.”
Paulson’s casting reunites her with Murphy following collaborations on Ratched, American Horror Story and The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story. She and Beatty also share a close relationship after appearing together in the Broadway production of Appropriate.
“I love Sarah Paulson so very much,” Beatty said. “She was such a part of the creative process for me from the very beginning.”
The trailer saves Paulson’s Wuornos for its final moments, allowing her to deliver one killer closing line.
“No one really knows what happened that day,” a voice says.
“Oh, I fuckin’ know what happened,” Wuornos responds.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premieres Sept. 17 on Netflix.
