Over the course of its short four-year-existence, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s “Monster” anthology series has proven wildly controversial. Real people involved in the history the show has dredged up — retelling the stories of famous American killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers, and Ed Gein — have condemned the show’s approach to its sensitive material as exploitative, dredging up debates about the ethics of true crime fiction.
In response, Murphy and Brennan have apparently decided the best course is to flash back to a murder case where everyone involved has long since died. Netflix has released the official trailer for “The Lizzie Borden Story,” the next entry in the “Monster” series, which eschews the late 1900s time period of the previous three seasons for one of the 19th-centuries most sensationalized murder trials.
The real Lizzie Borden was born in 1860 to a wealthy family living in Fall River, Massachusetts. In August 1892, her father, Andrew, and stepmother, Abby, were discovered dead in their home, having been attacked with a hatchet. Suspicion fell on Lizzie after she gave contradictory answers to the police officers, and she was tried but eventually acquitted. Various theories surrounding the murders arose following the verdict, but they were never officially solved. Borden remains an iconic figure in American culture, with several feature films made about the trial and her name immortalized in a folk rhyme proclaiming she gave her mother “forty whacks.”
Judging by the trailer, the “Monster” take on the Lizzie Borden tale is predictably sexier and poppier. Soundtracked to “Berghain” by Rosalía, the show appears to run with the theory that Andrew was abusive to Lizzie and that she was a lesbian in a sexual relationship with housemaid Bridget Russell, who helped her carry out the attack. The trailer also promises to touch on how then-contemporary thoughts of women as too innocent to murder helped Lizzie get acquitted, and teases the incorporation of other stories of female killers throughout history.
“Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” stars Ella Beatty, the daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, as Lizzie. Vicky Krieps plays Bridget Sullivan and alleged Hungarian serial killer Elizabeth Báthory. Charlie Hunnam and Rebecca Hall play Andrew and Abby, while Billie Lourd and Joey Pollari play sister Emma and uncle John Morse. Jessica Barden plays stage actress Nance O’Neil, a friend of Lizzie’s in her later years, while Sarah Paulson will reportedly play Aileen Wuornos, the 1980s serial killer best known for the 2003 film “Monster.”
The series is created and written by Brennan. Murphy and Brennan executive produce with Max Winkler, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson, Louise Shore, Nissa Diederich, Todd Kubrak, Carl Franklin, and Tanase Popa. Winkler and Sarah Adina Smith direct the series.
All eight episodes of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” will premiere on Netflix on September 17. Watch the full trailer below.