LIZZIE

PARENTS PUT ON CHOPPING BLOCK

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The sensationally gruesome murders of Lizzie’s parents in Massachusetts spawned many subsequent cultural references.

Director Max Winkler puts together 8 episodes of surrealistic dramatizations of the Lizzie Borden Story in the 4^th installment of the Monsters streaming on Netflix.

Winkler drives the story through a narrative that seamless continues on despite being chopped with an editing axe to explain how Lizzie got to murdering her parents.

The story eventually self reflects to the serial killer, Aileen Wuornes, who took a shining to the nomenclature almost 100 years after the Borden murders. Wuornes, who is played convincingly by Sarah Paulson, was a prostitute who murdered seven of her customers from 1989-1990. Wuornes’ journey leads her to the Borden house, which has been converted into a museum.

Lizzie was abused by her parents, and being induced to acting by the manipulation of a housemaid, takes out her anger by butchering both parents with an axe.

The script turns inside out once and a while to show that the idea of using the axe as the murder weapon comes from her father being a mortician, and, or so the story goes, who would chop up the deceased to fit them inside the casket.

Lizzie is never convicted of the murders. And so, in part, the series provides the background story to how she got away with it, as well as to the underlining intent to prove she did kill her parents.

Time is one factor in that the Borden household is a bit isolated in 19^th century America, allowing for a conspiracy to cover up, and also because, the gruesome murders occured prior to DNA and other forensic tools that would have likely found a killer among the blood splatters.

Ella Beaty, as Lizzie Borden, shows Lizzie as a young woman driven to the confidence of the housemaid through the trauma of the abuse – such as name calling and degrading comments by her mother, while her father expressed his indifference since he was tired of having to listen to all the chattering among the women of the household.

The housemaid, of course, sees all the abuse, including experiencing a bit of abuse firsthand herself, as she is the fourth of a succession of housemaids fired amidst unprovoked tirades.

Vicky Krieps plays Bridget, the housemaid, who turns from an emotional support for Lizzie into an accomplice, especially after she gets shared with another household, where she gets whipped. Bridget had already started manipulating Lizzie a bit, by playing sorcerer games and planting ideas in her head through the trust of a developing friendship.

In the end, Winkler has Lizzie and Bridget killing the Bordens together.

Rebecca Hall projects surrealism as the wicked step-mother character, Abby Borden. Hall’s stern facial expressions almost turn inside themselves before becoming vocalized. And as the classic abuser, Abby has no explanation as to why she should die so unconventionally.

Charlie Hunnam plays Lizzie’s father, as an odd sort, beginning with his choice of professions. Andrew clearly has other issues which are reflected in his deeply immoral personal choices.

Monsters is an episodic television series that dramatizes sensational true crime murders, but each of the four seasons is an independent production, with different styles and one independent true crime event per season.