Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is the fourth chapter of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology, which premiered on September 17, 2026. Starring Ella Beatty as ‘Lizzie Borden,’ it revisits the infamous 1892 Fall River axe murders.
In a bold and creative twist, the season expands beyond Borden to include other notorious women labeled monsters over the years. Among them is Countess Elizabeth Báthory, the 17th century Hungarian noblewoman known as the Blood Countess, portrayed by Vicky Krieps in stylized fantasy sequences.
Countess Elizabeth Báthory was 15 years old when she got married
Elizabeth Báthory was a Hungarian aristocrat born on August 7, 1560, in the town of Nyírbátor, into the Báthory family, one of the wealthiest and most influential dynasties in Central Europe.
Elizabeth’s family held vast lands, commanded private armies, and even produced a king of Poland, Stephen Báthory, her uncle. Raised in a castle at Ecséd, she was given an unusually good education for a woman of her time, learning Latin, German, and Greek.
At the age of 15, she married Ferenc Nádasdy, a powerful soldier nicknamed the Black Bey of Hungary for his brutal tactics against the Ottomans. As part of the marriage arrangement, she received the Cachtice Castle and its surrounding villages, located in present-day Slovakia. The couple had four children. Nádasdy was often away at war, leaving Elizabeth to manage enormous estates, finances, and local disputes, which gave her unusual authority.
After her husband died in 1604, stories about her cruelty grew louder. While earlier complaints about harm to peasant girls had been dismissed due to her status, allegations that victims included daughters of lesser nobility in 1609 forced action. King Matthias II ordered her cousin, Gyorgy Thurzo, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate.
Thurzo collected testimony from more than 300 witnesses. They described abductions, beatings, burnings, biting, freezing, and starvation inside her castles. When Thurzo raided Cachtice on December 30, 1610, investigators claimed they found evidence of torture. Báthory and four servants, Dorottya Szentes, Ilona Jó, Katarína Benická, and a male servant named János Ujváry, were detained.
The servants were tried in 1611, and three were executed. Báthory was never put on trial, as noble law protected her from public judgment. Instead, she was locked inside her own castle. Rooms were bricked up, leaving only slits for food and air. She died there on August 21, 1614.
How is Countess Elizabeth Báthory portrayed in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story?
In Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, Countess Elizabeth Báthory is portrayed less as a documented historical figure and more as a haunting folklore figure. Played by Vicky Krieps in a dual role as both Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan and the Hungarian noblewoman, Báthory enters the story through a book Maggie reads to Lizzie Borden throughout the season.
The book itself leans into legend rather than record, including tales of blood baths to retain youth, a network of accomplices and torturers, and a final punishment of being walled alive inside her castle.
Creator Ryan Murphy has described this season as a fantasia about women versus the system, linking three infamous figures, such as Lizzie Borden, Aileen Wuornos, and Báthory, who Murphy has noted was an inspiration for Dracula. The series stages Báthory in stylized fantasy sequences, dressed in late 16th-century opulence, cold and untouchable in her power.
Thematically, Elizabeth serves as the origin point for the season’s circular idea of female rage. Her exaggerated cruelty becomes a model of rebellion for Lizzie and Maggie, who feel trapped in a house built on humiliation. That same story later reaches across a century to comfort Aileen Wuornos. Rather than judging whether the murders happened, Monster uses Báthory to explore how stories of monstrous women are passed down, retold, and used as courage.
Have you watched all the episodes of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story on Netflix? Let us know.
PC: damian_scaglia/Instagram, MonsterNetflix_/X
Also Read: ‘Phantom Of The Paradise’ Actor, Gerrit Graham Passed Away At 77, What Was The Cause Of His Death?
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: bollywoodshaadis.com
