"....Took An Ax, Took An Ax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                         "Lizzie Borden took an ax, and gave her mother forty whacks.                                                                         When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one."                                                                    ----Old Folk Rhyme

                                   Girls, you know I just love Lizzie Borden, having been to the actual house, where I stood right in the spots where she did the famous killings.  So, how could I pass up 2018's "Lizzie," starring Chloe Sevigny in a chilling performance?????????????  This was the first half of our Saturday night non-"Svengoolie" double feature.

                                      This film pulls no punches and does not hold back on the graphic horror of the killings, but, darlings, the sight of a naked, demented spinster Lizzie hiding in the corner of her room prior to the murder is perhaps the most frightening image of all.   Hats off to Chloe for doing it, because I am not sure I could.

                                        Of course, the done-in-the-nude trope is a favorite, having been famously done by Elizabeth Montgomery in 1975's TV movie, "The Legend Of Lizzie Borden."   Of course, Elizabeth could not go as far as Chloe, but still, it is a credible theory.  As is the possible lesbian relationship between the maid, played here by Kristen Stewart, who also goes nude to kill Lizzie's father, Andrew Borden, (nastily played by Jamey Sheridan) but when she loses her nerve, a fully dressed Lizzie steps in to give him those forty-one whacks.

                                           Fiona Shaw, as Lizzie's stepmother, Abby, is far more sympathetic than history would have one believe.  The drama seems to center on the rising tensions between Lizzie and her father.

                                         The lesbianism, as well as the killing of Lizzie's pigeons is questionable, as this film is high on drama, but I am not sure on historical accuracy.  But then, since no one really knows what happened inside that house, this leaves license for everyone.

                                            One thing I am sure of.  Lizzie did it, and got away with it, because men of her day could not imagine a woman--a spinster, yet!!!!!--doing such a heinous thing.

                                            So, Lizzie, whom everyone underestimated, pulled off the perfect crime, bought a home on the right side of the tracks in Fall River, Massachusetts, and lived out her life the way she pleased.  Her sister Emma lived with her for a time, but they had a falling out.  Did Emma get married?  I think so.

                                              Lizzie had it her way, and Chloe Sevigny's moving performance of anger, resentment, and desperation demonstrates how she got there.  And besides, there was the family money to think of.

                                               Lizzie was too smart for her own time.  Which is why she is still examined today.

                                                And if not for her, there would not have been Joan Crawford as Lucy Harbin in 1964's "Strait-Jacket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                                  We just LOVE that crazy bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!