Mimi Cave’s Vision of Domestic Horror and The Male Gaze

If you love slow burn thrillers and wild reveals, then Holland is your next obsessive rewatch.

Buckle up and adjust your prescription lenses before you hit play , because Holland 2025 is not your average suburban thriller….

This film is packed with nods from the director Mimi Caves favorite auteurs, and she’s not shy about it. There’s a little Hitchcock and dare I say, a dash of David Lynch in how she flirts with psychological horror just enough to keep you on edge.

The Polaroid Thesis: Behind the lens.

"Only God has perfect vision."

We meet Nancy Vandergert in a photo booth, smiling under sterile flashes. This is not just a cute aesthetic choice. This is a thesis. The camera becomes a recurring symbol in Holland 2025 , a witness, an all-seeing eye. The director uses this motif to peel back facades like layers of an onion. The act of being photographed becomes a ritual of exposure, a revelation…

As the story twists, Polaroids become relics of truth. Nancy finds them hidden in Harold’s basement and this is the spark, the inciting incident and in that moment her reality starts to crumble. The Polaroids aren’t just photos. They’re evidence. Suddenly, she’s not just a wife anymore , she becomes a detective, a stalcker, a woman reclaiming her own narrative.

The Optometrist: Vision vs Illusion

Now let’s talk about Harold , the caring husband, the hardworking optometrist and the King of Gaslight.

He helps people see. That’s his job. But it’s also the most ironic detail in this entire film. He is a man whose entire profession is about “clarity,” and yet he lives in deception all along, holding the narrative like a puppeteer. He builds miniature towns in the basement, literal, tiny dioramas of his wicked world. He has power and control. A god complex with a glue gun.

What is brilliant here is that Cave doesn’t scream this metaphor at us , she lets it simmer. Harold’s work with “vision” becomes a commentary on illusion vs reality

Who controls the gaze…?

Who gets to frame the story… ?

The film isn’t just about lies. It’s about who gets to tell them and who dares to reveal them.

Nancy’s transformation is key. She shifts from passive participant to full investigator. She stops being seen and starts seeing. She stops posing for the photo and starts turning the camera around. It’s a total role reversal: The feminine gaze reclaiming space in a patriarchal frame.

“You’re Not Putting Me in One of Your Little Houses.”

This line is more than defiance , it’s revolution. Nancy breaks the illusion , for herself and for us.

By the end, Holland 2025 has morphed fully into dream logic horror territory, where answers are fragile and timelines fold in on themselves. Some viewers may feel lost. Others like me ,will feel haunted. And that’s the trick. The movie stays with you. It lives in your mind, urging a second viewing. It dares you to look again annd again , just in case you missed something the first time.

Homages and Shadows

If you’re watching Holland 2025 and getting déjà vu chills , let me tell you, you are not hallucinating.

You’re standing in the long, dark corridor of cinematic homages. Director Mimi Cave curated a sinister mixtape of cinematic references that feel like whispered warnings from the past. I’m not sure if this film it’s a love letter to the thrillers of the ‘70s and ‘90s or a critique to the male gaze of every film directed by man who

Suspicion (1941) – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

In Suspicion, Joan Fontaine plays a woman who begins to suspect that her charming new husband might be trying to kill her. Sound familiar?

The movie taps into that primal terror: not monsters, not demons, but the man you trust the most holding a dark secret.

Phantom Thread (2017) – Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

In Phantom Thread, Reynolds Woodcock is a genius tailor who builds immaculate dresses while emotionally dismembering the women around him. . Every garment is stitched with unspoken truths and invisible chains. In his world, women exist to be molded, worn and admired.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Nicole Kidman, once again trapped in a velvet box of domestic violence.

In Eyes Wide Shut, Kidman plays Alice Harford: a woman whose marriage is a glossy illusion. She walks the line between reality and dream, sanity and paranoia, trying to decipher whether her husband’s temptations are real, imagined, or somewhere in the twisted space in between.

Fargo (1996) – Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Just like the Coen brothers with Fargo, It’s a story about an isolated suburbia turned sinister.

At first glance, Nancy’s world in Holland feels like a Coen-esque postcard. But slowly, like Fargo’s infamous reveal, we realize this isn’t just a story about a quiet town , it Is a story about what people are willing to do to keep their secrets safe.

To Die For (1995) – Directed by Gus Van Sant

You know you’re deep in psychological thriller territory when the Pomeranians show up.

Yes, Holland 2025 makes a funny subtle wink to *Gus Van Sant’s To Die For *, another film where the American Dream wears designer clothes and quietly sharpens a knife behind its back.

At its core, To Die For is about a woman so obsessed with being seen annd adored on camera, that she is willing to manipulate, seduce, and destroy anyone who threatens her spotlight. Kidman’s Suzanne Stone is icy and terrifyingly charming.

Mulholland Drive (2001) – Directed by David Lynch

Like Lynch’s masterwork Mulholland Drive, Cave’s film blurs the line between reality and projection. We’re not just watching Nancy’s story, we’re inside her mind. Time loops and flashes cuts break through like repressed memories.

Hereditary (2018) – Directed by Ari Aster

When watching the doll house, you can’t help but think of Hereditary, Ari Aster’s masterful descent into grief , where Toni Collette’s character recreates her life in miniature like she’s both the architect and the prisoner of her own trauma. It’s a chilling metaphor, the idea that our past is meticulously preserved, unable to be escaped.

The dollhouses in Holland 2025 aren’t about grief.

They’re about control.

Final Thoughts: A Puzzle Worth Obsessing Over

Holland 2025 focuses our attention on what we don’t want to see. It shines a flashbulb into the dark corners of domesticity, American identity and collective memory.

Nicole Kidman is extraordinary. The direction of Mimi Caves is razor-sharp. The writing, though slippery at times, is rich with metaphor and mystery. This is a film that rewards patience.

For fans of dark thrillers or psychological mysteries that refuse to give easy answers, this film is a #mustwatch

8/10 stars