---
title: "Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story"
year: 2026
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story"
fi1m_id: "monster-the-lizzie-borden-story"
tmdb_id: 299939
wikidata_id: "Q106188426"
fi1m_score: 47
critics_score: 43
critics_reviews: 8
published: "2026-09-21"
updated: "2026-10-01T06:02:38.653808+00:00"
region: "GB"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (2026)

Created by Ian Brennan · BBFC 18 · Drama, Crime

## Identity

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** monster-the-lizzie-borden-story
- **TMDB ID:** 299939
- **Wikidata ID:** Q106188426
- **Same entity:** https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/299939, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q106188426

**Fi1m score: 47** · Critics 43 from 8 reviews

*In a sentence:* Lizzie gets a hatchet and a halo, and the halo does more damage

> Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps are worth the first two hours, and Ian Brennan’s eight-part retelling of the Borden murders has one idea about its heroine, which it states in the first episode and then repeats for seven more.

## Synopsis

Fall River, Massachusetts, 1892. Lizzie Borden (Ella Beatty) is unmarried, in her thirties and living in her father’s house. Andrew Borden (Charlie Hunnam) has money and will not spend it on his daughters. Her stepmother Abby (Rebecca Hall) has been in the house for decades and is still not called mother by either Lizzie or her older sister Emma (Billie Lourd). The Irish maid, Bridget Sullivan (Vicky Krieps), sees everything and says little. On 4 August 1892 Andrew and Abby are found dead in the house, killed with a hatchet, and Lizzie becomes the only suspect anyone in town wants to talk about. Alongside this, the series cuts to Florida nearly a century later, where Aileen Wuornos (Sarah Paulson) is killing men along the highways. Eight episodes; 18 certificate.

## Review

Ian Brennan’s eight-part account of the Borden murders begins with the facts and then runs from them. Fall River, Massachusetts, 1892: a rich man who would not part with a dollar, a second wife the daughters treated as a lodger, an Irish maid, and on 4 August two bodies and a hatchet. It is one of the best-known unsolved cases in American history, and the series has decided what happened and why. The decision is that Lizzie Borden was a good woman who was pushed. Eight hours is a long time to hold a single thought, and the series does not manage it.

The cast are better than what they are given. Rebecca Hall plays Abby Borden as a frightened, watchful woman inside a part the script has drawn as a villain, and she is the only performer who seems to be working against the writing rather than with it. Vicky Krieps, as Bridget Sullivan, does something similar from the kitchen: she watches the family the way a servant learns to, and every scene she is in is quieter and more truthful than the scene before it. Ella Beatty holds the centre with a stillness that is often striking, but Brennan has written Lizzie as a list of grievances and not a person, and there is only so much Beatty can do with a list. Charlie Hunnam is asked to play Andrew as a tyrant and nothing else, and does what is asked.

Then there is the Florida strand. Sarah Paulson plays Aileen Wuornos in a series of cutaways that arrive whenever Fall River threatens to get interesting, and they are the weakest thing here. Paulson plays her big, all teeth and shoulders, and the whole strand sits in the shadow of *Monster*, the 2003 film in which Charlize Theron played the same woman with far more care. We were bored during these stretches, and then we were annoyed at being bored, because we could see the better series being interrupted to make room for them. The parallel Brennan wants to draw between the two women is stated in dialogue more than once, in case we missed it.

Max Winkler and Sarah Adina Smith direct with energy, and the energy is not nothing. Matthew Flood Ferguson’s Borden house is all narrow stairs and closed doors, and the directors move through it fast. Paula Bradley keeps the women in dark, heavy cloth that makes the heat of the summer legible. Bryce Dessner’s score is spare and does its job, and the songs dropped over the period scenes are the liveliest choices anyone makes, though they are borrowed. When the hatchet comes out the blood is plentiful and the camera does not flinch. We laughed at the first of these scenes, and then felt slightly ashamed, because the series plainly wanted us to feel something else and had not done the work to earn it.

The work it has not done is the middle. Between the murders and the courtroom there is a great deal of waiting, filled with flashbacks, dreams and speeches about what men have done to women, all of which are true and none of which is drama. Jessica Barden’s Nance O’Neil, an actress who enters Lizzie’s life late, gets a handful of good scenes and then the series moves on. The series believes that a woman with a hatchet needs a reason, and that supplying one is the same as understanding her. It is not.

The first *Monster* season, on Jeffrey Dahmer, had plenty wrong with it, but it stayed in one city and one decade and let its subject be unpleasant. This one keeps leaving Fall River. Brennan has written a case for the defence, which is a legitimate thing to make about Lizzie Borden, but a defence needs a prosecution to argue with, and the series never lets anyone make one.

Watch the first two episodes for Hall and Krieps, who are doing real work in a house that does not deserve them. If by the third you are counting how many remain, the answer is five, and they do not get shorter.

*Fi1m score 47, published 21 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics do not much like Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, and the few who do like it for its excess rather than its argument. Where praise gathers, it gathers around the cast: Rebecca Hall is singled out again and again, with Vicky Krieps and Ella Beatty also noticed, and several reviews credit the direction with energy and style even while finding little underneath it. The music choices earn a nod from more than one critic.

The reservations cluster on the writing. The reviews describe a season that turns Borden into a simple feminist hero, hops between time periods without much reason, pads its running time and has little to say about either its subject or her era. Vulture and The Hollywood Reporter are the harshest, the former arguing the whole anthology has run its course; Variety is the clear outlier, finding it wildly entertaining. The spread is wide, from warm to hostile, with the middle thinly populated.

## Straight answers

**Is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story worth watching?**

*Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story* is only partly worth watching, and we scored it 47. Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps make the first two episodes worth an evening, but Ian Brennan's eight-part retelling has one idea about Lizzie and repeats it for the remaining six, interrupted by a Florida strand that adds nothing. Watch the opening pair and then decide.

**How long is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, and what is it rated?**

*Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story* is rated 18 by the BBFC in the UK. It is a drama and crime series.

**Where can I watch Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story in the UK?**

*Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story* is streaming on Netflix in the UK. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, and is it suitable for children?**

*Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story* carries an 18 certificate and is not suitable for children. When the hatchet comes out the blood is plentiful and the camera does not flinch, and the Aileen Wuornos strand adds further killings. The tone is grim rather than frightening, so the squeamish will struggle more than anyone hoping for scares.

**How does Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story compare to Heavenly Creatures?**

*Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story* is the weaker of the two, and [*Heavenly Creatures*](https://film.one/film/heavenly-creatures) is the one we recommend. Peter Jackson's film builds dread from the friendship between two girls and never asks us to excuse them, while Brennan's series spends eight hours making a case for Lizzie's defence. Anyone drawn to real murders committed by young women should start with the film.

**What should I watch after Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story?**

After *Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story*, try [*Lizzie*](https://film.one/film/lizzie) (2018, Fi1m 60): Same house, same hatchet, ninety minutes, and Chloë Sevigny playing the woman rather than the cause. Then [*Lady Macbeth*](https://film.one/film/lady-macbeth) (2016, Fi1m 80): A trapped young woman in a cold Victorian house decides to stop being trapped; and [*Heavenly Creatures*](https://film.one/film/heavenly-creatures) (1994, Fi1m 84): Peter Jackson’s early film about two girls, a mother and a brick, all dread and no halo.

### Reviews we read (8)

- **Variety**, Aramide Tinubu (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the series wildly entertaining and a refreshing, unique take on the Monster anthology. It praises the portrayal of a woman tormented by family, misogyny and her body while noting the show bends the truth but highlights not underestimating a woman seeking freedom. [Read](https://variety.com/2026/tv/reviews/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-review-netflix-1236858761/)
- **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (30/100, inferred): The review argues that the season devolves into a poor imitation of the 2003 film Monster, particularly in its Aileen Wuornos subplot, and has little insightful to say about either killer despite the Lizzie Borden focus. It highlights the series' overall lack of substance in its handling of true-crime stories. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/monster-season-4-review-monster-the-movie-aileen-wuornos-1235217589/)
- **The Guardian** (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the series a bonkers, blood-soaked fever dream that feels made up on the fly and has nothing worthwhile to say about its subject or era. They single out the great performances, especially Rebecca Hall, and the stylish, energetic direction for praise. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/sep/17/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-review-netflix)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Angie Han (20/100, inferred): The critic calls it lurid faux-feminism and nonsense, criticizing the lack of nuance, filler and forced attempts to make it meaningful about womanhood. The villainy of the parents is cartoonish and the series flails with stalling tactics. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-review-netflix-ryan-murphy-1236705084/)
- **Vulture** (20/100, inferred): The critic believes The Lizzie Borden Story signals it is time to end the Ryan Murphy Monster franchise altogether due to its increasing repetition and superficiality. They single out the tiresome neo-woke platitudes, weak performances (especially Sarah Paulson's caricature), and the series' failure to add meaningful depth or reflection beyond spectacle and gore. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/monster-lizzie-borden-story-review.html)
- **NME**, James Mottram (70/100, inferred): The series delivers campy, blood-splattered melodrama that takes on the patriarchy with irreverent flair and strong performances from Vicky Krieps and Rebecca Hall. It lacks subtlety but offers fun in its heightened hysteria and eclectic music choices. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/tv-reviews/monster-lizzie-borden-story-review-netflix-true-crime-3969447)
- **Collider**, Gabrielle Moss (6/10): The show is a campy, frustrating, occasionally moving watch that explores abuse and justified rage through strong performances, especially from Ella Beatty and Rebecca Hall. It struggles thematically with simplistic feminist messaging and an overly saintly portrayal of its lead. [Read](https://collider.com/monster-lizzie-borden-review-ryan-murphy/)
- **Consequence** (C-): The season is shallow and silly, turning Lizzie Borden into a simplistic feminist hero while jumping through time periods without depth or nuance. It over-relies on obvious themes and surface-level execution despite solid needle drops and some amusing elements. [Read](https://consequence.net/2026/09/monster-lizzie-borden-review-ryan-murphy/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Ian Brennan
- **Creator:** Ian Brennan
- **Director:** Max Winkler, Sarah Adina Smith
- **Writer:** Ian Brennan
- **Music:** Bryce Dessner
- **Production design:** Matthew Flood Ferguson
- **Costume design:** Paula Bradley
- **Producer:** Adam Penn, Alonzo Nevarez
- **Cast:** Ella Beatty as Lizzie Borden; Vicky Krieps as Bridget Sullivan; Sarah Paulson as Aileen Wuornos; Charlie Hunnam as Andrew Borden; Rebecca Hall as Abby Borden; Billie Lourd as Emma Borden; Jessica Barden as Nance O'Neil; Scarlett DeMeo as Sarah Anthony Borden
- **Certificate (BBFC):** 18
- **Release (the UK):** 17 September 2026
- **Genres:** Drama, Crime
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYTzF1vna40

## Where to watch in the UK

- Netflix: streaming

*Checked 2026-09-21.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Lizzie* (2018), Fi1m 60: Same house, same hatchet, ninety minutes, and Chloë Sevigny playing the woman rather than the cause — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/lizzie.md)
- *Alias Grace* (2017): A maid, a murder and a nineteenth-century trial, told with patience this series never finds
- *Monster* (2003): The Aileen Wuornos film this one keeps glancing at; Charlize Theron does not caricature her
- *Lady Macbeth* (2016), Fi1m 80: A trapped young woman in a cold Victorian house decides to stop being trapped — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/lady-macbeth.md)
- *Heavenly Creatures* (1994), Fi1m 84: Peter Jackson’s early film about two girls, a mother and a brick, all dread and no halo — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/heavenly-creatures.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story