This article contains spoilers for Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.
Not only is the latest iteration of Monster the bloodiest yet, it’s also the season in which its creators have applied the heaviest artistic licence.
While season four of the divisive Netflix drama mostly centres around the case of Lizzie Borden, it does also feature other key figures from true crime history – most notably the serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
In Monster, Aileen Wuornos is depicted as being obsessed with Lizzie Borden, and in her final moments, she’s seen being executed on death row while Ella Beatty and Vicky Krieps’ characters, Lizzie Borden and Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, beckon her to the afterlife.
Monster being Monster, this finale was met with a divided reaction online, with co-creator Ian Brennan opening up to Netflix about his intentions with the scene ahead of the season’s release.
“In a way, Lizzie has a happy ending, and Aileen didn’t,” he suggested. “She didn’t get away with anything. So it felt right to land on her and give her, if not a happy ending, one that is satisfying.”
He added: “This anthology asks the question, ‘Are monsters made or are they born?’. And I don’t think Aileen Wuornos was born that way. I think she was made into the thing she was.”
In Monster, Aileen Wuornos is portrayed by Sarah Paulson, who has already spoken out in defence of her performance.
Reacting to comparisons with Charlize Theron, who won an Oscar for portraying the murderer in another project also named Monster, Sarah said: “I’ve seen a lot of productions of Death Of A Salesman, and I’m so glad I saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but I’m equally glad I saw Nathan Lane. I don’t sit there and go, ‘Well, that was worthy, and this one is not’.
“To me, the experience of acting – the art of acting – is the exploration of human behaviour by way of our personal experience and by way of your personal interpretation.”
She added: “This is my interpretation of Aileen Wuornos based on the research I did, and based on my personhood, and how it comes out through me. It’s not an attempt to do something like anybody ever did.”