Netflix has dropped the full official trailer for Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, the fourth season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series. The trailer gives audiences a closer look at Ella Beatty as the infamous Lizzie Borden and reveals a surprising appearance by Sarah Paulson as another real-life killer. The series premieres September 17, 2026, exclusively on Netflix.
The trailer opens with a blood-soaked whisper: “There’s nothing wrong with blood. Blood is power. Blood is freedom.” Those words set the tone for a season that explores sexual repression, family cruelty, and the making of one of America’s most notorious figures.
The Trailer Shows Lizzie’s Dark Transformation
The Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story trailer puts Ella Beatty front and center as Lizzie Borden. It opens with Borden crushing a berry in her hand while the words “Blood is power. Blood is freedom” play in the background.
The footage shows Lizzie as a deeply repressed young woman living under the control of her father, Andrew Borden (Charlie Hunnam), and stepmother, Abby Borden (Rebecca Hall). The family’s new maid, Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan (Vicky Krieps), enters the picture. Lizzie quickly falls for her, and their relationship appears to push an already unstable household toward violence.
The trailer shows Lizzie and Maggie planning the murders. “A knife is too easy, and a rifle is almost too kind a way to go,” Maggie says. They settle on a hatchet used for butchering chickens. Lizzie then says, “Just let me have the first whack.”
The trailer also shows a detective investigating the murders, saying, “No way a woman could do this. This is the work of a man.” The screen then flashes: “Hell Hath No Fury, Like a Woman with an Axe.” The footage ends with Lizzie taking a final swing at her father as he tries to crawl away.
Sarah Paulson Appears as Aileen Wuornos in a Surprise Role
The trailer ends with a major surprise. Sarah Paulson appears in a scene set in the present day, inside the Borden household which now operates as a museum. A tour guide says, “No one really knows what happened that day.” Paulson’s character responds, “Oh, I f**king know what happened.”
Paulson plays Aileen Wuornos, the real-life serial killer who shot and killed seven men while working as a sex worker in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Wuornos was convicted of six murders and executed in 2002.
Series star Ella Beatty explained the connection between Borden and Wuornos to Netflix’s Tudum:
“The show is exploring a legacy of female rage and reaction to the set of circumstances that they are presented with. I think there’s a connection [between Borden and Wuornos] that Ryan and Ian were interested in mapping and exploring.”
This continues the Monster franchise’s pattern of showing how these criminals influenced later generations. The previous season, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, showed how Gein’s crimes influenced Hollywood horror.
The Cast Includes Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall, and More
Ella Beatty, daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, leads the cast as Lizzie Borden. She previously appeared in Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.
The supporting cast includes:
- Charlie Hunnam as Andrew Borden, Lizzie’s father
- Rebecca Hall as Abby Borden, Lizzie’s stepmother
- Vicky Krieps as Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, the Borden family maid
- Billie Lourd as Emma Borden, Lizzie’s sister
- Jessica Barden as Nance O’Neil
- Joey Pollari as John Morse
- Sarah Paulson as Aileen Wuornos
Charlie Hunnam previously starred in Monster: The Ed Gein Story and received an Emmy nomination for his performance.
Related:
The Series Marks the Franchise’s First Female Monster
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is the first season of the anthology to focus on a woman accused of murder. The series has eight episodes and premieres on September 17, 2026.
The official logline reads:
“When the repressed daughter of a wealthy New England family and her rebellious maid find themselves trapped in a house built on humiliation and cruelty, they escape into a fantasy of sex, power, and revenge. The gruesome unsolved murders that follow don’t just shock the world — they give birth to an icon who refuses to live imprisoned in a cage, choosing instead to forge her own legend: shocking, monstrous and gloriously free.”
The real Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe at the family’s Fall River, Massachusetts home in 1892. She was tried and acquitted the following year. No one else was ever charged, and the murders remain officially unsolved.
The Show Explores Whether Monsters Are Born or Made
Executive producer Ian Brennan told Vanity Fair that the new season continues the central theme of the Monster anthology:
“It was a tough time to be a rudderless young woman, and in a house that didn’t seem happy. The big question the anthology always asks is are monsters made or born? With Lizzie, if she’s a monster, she wasn’t born that way.”
Ella Beatty added that the series offers an interpretation rather than a straightforward historical recreation. She described her task as translating the available material into “the very fictionalized version of the woman that we created for the show.”
Beatty also told Tudum:
“Every season of Monster has been an exercise in understanding the person’s psychology. 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.”
Rebecca Hall described the series as “Ryan Murphy does Cinderella.”
Previous Seasons of the Monster Anthology
The Monster franchise debuted with DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, starring Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer. The show became a massive hit, racking up more than one billion viewing hours in under a month.
The second season, Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story, chronicled the case of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, played by Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez. The third season, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, centered on serial killer Ed Gein, whose crimes inspired films including Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs.
Where to Watch
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story will stream exclusively on Netflix starting September 17, 2026. The eight-episode season will be available for viewers in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, India, and globally.
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