"Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one."

And so goes the famous skipping rhyme about the girl who allegedly slaughtered both of her parents. Quite a grim tale to turn into a movie, you might say, but with Christina Ricci playing the infamous Lizzie Borden, this might just be something worth watching.

Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci Will Play Lizzie Borden In A New Lifetime TV Movie.

Lifetime will bring Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, a movie made especially for television, to screens on the 25th January at 8 PM ET. A teaser poster released for the film shows Ricci smiling demurely in a long white nightgown whilst clutching an axe. However, it appears that the slaughter has already taken place as blood splatters both her dress and the axe.

Nick Gomez directs the Sony Pictures Television movie, which also stars Clea DuVall as Lizzie's sister Emma and Billy Campbell as lawyer Andrew Jennings, according to The Daily Mail. For those who are unfamiliar, the real life story of Lizzie Borden traces a Massachusetts woman who was tried and acquitted of the brutal axe murders of her father and stepmother in 1892.


Immortalised by a playground nursery rhyme, the story of Lizzie Borden is still speculated upon today. However, it looks like Lifetime and Gomez have already made their minds up about Lizzie's guilt and chose the blood-splattered shot along with the caption, "It's Time To Bury The Hatchet."

After Witches of East End and the Donatella Versace and Anna Nicole Smith biopics, Lifetime is gaining a reputation for broadcasting programmes about interesting and perhaps even mentally unstable women.

Christina Ricci Met Gala
The 'Addams Family' Actress Is Acquainted With The More Gothic Roles.

Lizzie Borden Took an Ax premieres on January 25th at 8 PM ET. Are you planning on watching the dramatization of the notorious true crime case?