Spoilers for 'Lizzie': Chloë Sevigny Terrifies as the Axe Murderess, Lizzie Borden

Axe murderess Lizzie Borden has been at the center of American folklore since the gruesome murders of her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892. The legend of these murders have been depicted in literature, television, film and art ever since. Her home is now a bed and breakfast and has been featured on shows like Ghost Hunters. Her life, however, remains shrouded in mystery.

Lizzie, starring Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart, paints a complicated portrait of Lizzie Borden. It introduces a new perspective that urges audiences to consider that there is no black and white way to look at these killings. Through this retelling, Sevigny gives a masterfully tense performance as one of the most enigmatic women in American history.

As a thriller-biopic, the narrative of Lizzie is maintained entirely by small, important details, especially the sounds. The Borden House is noisy. Every sound reverberates through the halls at maximum volume; squeaky bed frames, doors being open and shut, creaky floorboards, a woman whimpering in her bed. A character's footsteps are always heard seconds before they enter a room. The only time this is not true is as Lizzie (Sevigny) approaches her step-mother (Fiona Shaw) from behind and hacks her to death with a hatchet.

As the film opens, Lizzie's footsteps are heard before she enters the frame. The camera follows the back of her head as she walks through the house to a pear tree in the garden. She plucks a fruit from the branches and turns to see the maid, Bridget (Kristen Stewart) washing windows in the yard.

Cut to Lizzie's high pitched scream as she discovers the bodies of Andrew and Abby Borden, their faces nothing but bloody pulp, and frantically tells Bridget to call the police. All of this occurs in the first five minutes.

The following two hours delves deep into the lives of the Borden family in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie, who frequently experiences seizures, has a tense relationship with her father and stepmother. She is unmarried and often leaves the house unchaperoned, a source of embarrassment for an established family during the 1800s. She challenges her father and he typically retaliates with physical or verbal abuse. At one point, he kills her beloved pet pigeons with an hatchet in front of her, the same hatchet she would later use to murder him.

A silent witness to the family's twisted behavior towards each other is Bridget, the Irish maid. As her and Lizzie's relationship grows increasingly intimate, she is drawn deeper into their sinister orbit. There is not a single motive for Lizzie to murder her family. Andrew Borden (Jamey Sheridan) receives frequent death threats, though it is established that the anonymous writer is not Lizzie. He threatens to cut her and her sister from his will and send Lizzie to an institution. When he catches Lizzie and Bridget together in the barn, they finally decide to end his life.

"Men don't have to know things," she says to Bridget. "Women do."

Of course there is an arrest, a trial and an acquittal. These are not necessarily important to the core of Lizzie's story. The narrative that Sevigny and screenwriter Bryce Krass have built around this figure is that every single one of her actions leads towards the singular goal of obtaining her freedom. She is so consumed with rage for her situation that she kills her stepmother without hesitation. She takes the hatchet and bludgeons her father when Bridget becomes too scared to do it herself. Lizzie is not sympathetic. She is terrifying.

She is also found not guilty. The courts did not believe that a woman of her stature would commit such a heinous crime. And so, Lizzie Borden walks free. Bridget left the Borden house soon after the trial, as did her sister. Lizzie spent the rest of her life alone in the house and died at the age of 67.

The last we see of Lizzie, she stands alone outside what is now her house and tilts her face towards the sun.

Lizzie premieres in theaters September 14.