The latest chapter of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s MONSTER anthology, MONSTER: The Lizzie Borden Story, is almost ready to start the spookiest season of the year off with a bloody bang. This time, they are bringing horror fans the series’s first female ‘monster,’ played by Ella Beatty. To mark this momentous occasion, Netflix is thrilled to share a chilling first look at the series and its official release date. Mark your calendars, because the 8-episode mini-series launches on Netflix on September 17, 2026.
“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,” reads the show’s official logline. “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.”
Ella Beatty on sharing Lizzie Borden’s story
While speaking with TUDUM, Ella Beatty copped to having a personal interest in Lizzie Borden’s legacy, saying she’s fascinated by her story and wants to share it with the world. “I am so excited for viewers to experience our exploration of Lizzie Borden’s story and the questions that her life animates to this day. It has been a dream come true to investigate this complicated person’s psychology and to examine an American crime that feels almost mythic in proportion. This season gives us our first female Monster and delves into female rage and repression which I’ve found to feel strikingly relevant, and I cannot wait to share it with the world.”
Who’s behind the camera?
Starring alongside Ella Beatty in the fourth terrifying installment of the MONSTER anthology are Vicky Krieps, Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall, with Billie Lourd, Joey Pollari, Sarah Paulson, and Jessica Barden. Max Winkler directs episodes 401, 402, 403, 405, 407, and 408, while Sarah Adina Smith helms 404 and 406.
A first look at Lizzie Borden
The teaser art shows Lizzie Borden attacking with an axe while blood spurts on her face, caking her hair with crimson drips of plasma and viscera. Meanwhile, the first official images from the series show the cast inside a stately manor, a darkened dining hall, and a funeral home crowded with coffins.
I’ve been waiting for Murphy and Brennan’s MONSTER anthology to tell Lizzie Borden’s story, and I hope that it lives up to the hype. While female serial killers are rare, they’re as brutal as any other, and Borden was as destructive as any other “monster” in Murphy’s catalog of killers. September is already chock-full of scary releases to set the mood for Halloween, and MONSTER: The Lizzie Borden Story is a great way to add some feminine rage and revenge to the holiday.
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