BRYCE DESSNER - Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Soundtrack

The fourth season of the anthology series “Monster”, after “Dahmer“, the Menendez brothers and “Ed Gein“, radically shifts setting, even changing century: we now find ourselves in the nineteenth century and, for the first time, at the center of the story is a (suspected) female killer. The story of Lizzie Borden is told in typical Netflix fashion, so without absolute historical accuracy – as has already happened in the other seasons of the series – trying, as usual, to capture the key aspects of the psychology of serial killers, digging deep into the reasons that turned these individuals into so-called “monsters”. So the monster isn't really a monster, or at least not entirely. It is, at times, but always driven by a terrible family that slowly, step by step, turned a child into a ruthless killer.

Bryce Dessner, known above all as the guitarist of The National and Clogs, is also a sought-after contemporary classical composer who for several years now has been moving between post-minimalism and orchestral composition, never shunning his ties to pop music, as shown for instance by “El Chan” from 2019.
With the soundtrack for “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story”, Dessner doesn't seem interested in simply building unsettling or menacing music, choosing instead a surprisingly elegant, luminous and at times even playful path. Dessner doesn't want to repeat the sounds of classic horror soundtracks, nor get close to those of the previous seasons, like “Dahmer” or “Ed Gein”, instead trying to bring his own music – without betraying it and without betraying the spirit of the series – into a context that might not have suited him naturally.

“Monster Theme” already highlights an oddity. The theme dedicated to a “monster” isn't scary at all and deliberately avoids any horror cliché: if anything, it's cheerful, symphonic and playful at the same time, certainly far removed from what one would expect from music associated with the story of Lizzie Borden. Dessner, in other words, chooses to lighten a dark story with sounds that seem to echo some of the solutions found in the neoclassical score for “Bridgerton” by Kris Bowers, probably one of the most recognizable among Netflix series. If you think of the “Ed Gein” theme, the difference is glaring.
The true unifying element of the score remains, predictably, post-minimalism. The three repeated notes of “Marriage Proposal” or “Maggie Kiss” are emblematic of Dessner's cultural background.
“You Can And You Will” and “Real Mother” are probably the moments where this formula achieves its greatest emotional impact, with a few minutes of undeniably evocative symphonic crescendos. “Maggie’s Crate” instead represents the more virtuosic side, with a few piano notes played at dizzying speed, while worth noting is “Lizzie Steals”, a piano piece with a classical-romantic flavor, worthy of the century inhabited by victim/perpetrator Lizzie.

Irony and elegance are the most interesting aspects of this modern chamber music. It would have been easier to make a horror soundtrack full of drones or dissonances. It's precisely Dessner's choice to explore completely different territory that is certainly the main strength of this soundtrack, the most original one made so far for the “Monster” series.

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04/10/2026