Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Hits Netflix September 17 — Ryan Murphy's Bloodiest Chapter Yet

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Hits Netflix September 17 — Ryan Murphy's Bloodiest Chapter Yet

True-crime girlies, rise up. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan are back with season 4 of Netflix's Monster anthology, and this time the axe is falling on Fall River. Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premieres September 17, 2026, and if the bloody first-look photos are anything to go by, this might be the most unhinged season since Evan Peters picked up the glasses as Jeffrey Dahmer.

After tackling the Menendez brothers in season 2 and Charlie Hunnam's chilling turn as Ed Gein in season 3, the anthology is finally putting a woman at the center of the horror — and honestly, it's about time.

Ella Beatty Picks Up the Hatchet as Lizzie Borden

Leading the carnage is Ella Beatty, the breakout daughter of Hollywood royalty Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, who stole scenes in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. Now she is taking on Lizzie Borden, the young woman accused of hacking her father Andrew Borden and stepmother Abby Borden to death with a hatchet in August 1892.

Here is the official logline from Netflix, and it is deliciously dark: when the repressed daughter of a wealthy New England family and her rebellious maid Bridget Sullivan find themselves trapped in a house built on humiliation and cruelty, they escape into a fantasy of sex, power, and revenge. Yeah. That is the kind of sentence that makes you cancel your weekend plans.

Charlie Hunnam is also back in the cast after headlining season 3 as Ed Gein, making him the anthology's first returning leading man — a fun connective thread for fans who have followed the series from Dahmer to Menendez to Gein.

Why This Season Could Be the Best One Yet

Let's be real: the Lizzie Borden case is the original true-crime obsession. She was acquitted in one of America's most sensational trials, spent the rest of her life under a cloud of suspicion in Fall River, Massachusetts, and inspired a jump-rope rhyme every millennial learned on the playground. It is perfect Murphy material — repression, religion, gender, class rage, and a big old mansion full of secrets.

• Premiere date: September 17, 2026, only on Netflix
• Creators: Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the duo behind Dahmer and American Horror Story
• Lead: Ella Beatty as Lizzie Borden, with Charlie Hunnam co-starring
• Binge factor: pairs perfectly with a rewatch of the Menendez season and Hulu's rival 2026 crime slate

September is stacked — The Gentlemen Season 2, the A Different World sequel reboot, and Smile 2 all just landed — but a prestige murder story from Murphy with a star-making turn at its center? That is appointment viewing.

Mark your calendars, sharpen your theories, and maybe skip the axe-throwing date night. Lizzie Borden took forty whacks — and Netflix is about to show us every single one. (Okay, historically it was way fewer blows, but you get the vibe.)