Reem Nawal Amin

Blood-Red Beautiful Horror:
Reem Nawal Amin's Cinematic Mindscape

Horror isn’t just a genre—it’s a muse, a mirror and a manifesto. British-Iraqi filmmaker, photographer and visual artist with a taste for the grotesque, Reem Nawal Amin crafts darkly hypnotic images that fuse fantasy, fear and fashion into something that lingers beneath your skin. Her staple blood-red motif draws from New York’s neon-soaked underworld, the psychosexual thrill of Hitchcock, and the unapologetic defiance of her inner teenager. She continues to push boundaries, redefining the grotesque as something intoxicating, subversive and seductive. Forever against the grain, she reveals to us what it means to be painfully human…

BY CHRISTIAN THEVATHASAN

12 February 2025

Izland Interview: Reem Nawal Amin - Photographer, Filmmaker & Visual Artist

Your stunning photography fuses horror, fantasy and fashion into striking visuals. What draws you to these genres, and how do they inform your creative process?

For me it’s always been an escape from how mundane life can be… I feel like Alice who falls down the rabbit hole and finds herself diving deeper into Wonderland, or perhaps Coraline as she’s crawling through the little door in the wall into a parallel universe. That duality is exactly how I feel when I think about why I create art. What captivates me is the idea that horror and fantasy can stem from real fear, only to then be amplified with an injection of the supernatural. It’s so intriguing… I have such a fascination with special effects and I adore the process of storytelling. I get to take an idea and intensify it through styling, allowing people to escape through it, just as I do.

I stay away from just ‘taking a pretty photograph’. I love draping my muses in something they wouldn’t normally wear, it gives them this kind of comfort to safely experience something that isn’t ordinary… but rather extraordinary. As much as I’ve spent my life capturing my vision through photography, I’m still trying to find my people… with the hopes of building a community of obscure and off-putting artists who share the same love of dramatics and all the power it holds in conveying deeper aspects of the soul.

What role does your British-Iraqi heritage play in shaping your artistic vision and the stories you tell through your work?

I’m not sure where my heritage takes place… I can definitely say that my upbringing has shaped how and why I create what I create. I moved a lot within the Middle East, from Syria and Jordan to Lebanon. I was constantly the new kid, and that was scary for me. We came to London around 1999 but only officially settled down around 2013. I grew up viewing everything as bigger than it really was, and that amplification of perspective developed into anxiety. That anxiety made it difficult for me to communicate and connect, I just wanted to find a place where I belonged. So whenever I was faced with confrontation I tended to escape out of anxiety and fear. I’d say it was how the little cinema screen in my head was created and it would play out visuals that would reflect my life but everything was so much better, and so bold.

Teenage Reem was so hellbent on going against the grain and I developed a rebellious approach to everything. I hated school, I bleached my hair, dyed it red, was into Satanism for a while and I used to design my own ouija boards. The idea of being normal terrified me so I leaned away from the ordinary and towards the abstract… I’d like to think those years shaped the stories I convey now, my characters are always fearless, bold and strong. Traits that my inner teenager yearned for. In a way my art is a love letter to her…whatever she wants, I’ll make it happen.

A recurring motif in your art is visuals of horror and the grotesque accompanied by this staple, vivid red. What is it about the colour and the horror genre that speak to you on such a deep level?

There’s a novel experience that is so inviting when it comes to horror stories. Peel back the layers and you’ll see it rooted in love, family dynamics, heartbreak, trauma, survival, rage. It’s a mirror of human relationships. My first trip to New York had such a huge impact on me. One night around the lower east side of Manhattan I ended up in one of those hole-in-the-wall bars. It was dark and gritty and the only source of light were strips of red neon placed above obscure artwork. As I went up the stairs, I came across a photograph by Nan Goldin, Cookie at Tin Pan Alley, New York City—underneath was a quote:

‘The colour red is at war with all the other colours’ ~ Anonymous

I took a second look, the photograph was so sullen, I got lost in it. One of those pivotal moments in an artists’ journey, you know? Something about the use of expression and darkness but it wasn’t so dark, it was inviting. I feel like that moment was meant to happen, I was meant to meet Cookie. I wanted to pull up a chair and sit with her. I wanted to observe what she was going to do next. At any given second she was either going to wail, let out a throat churning scream if I was to ask ‘what’s on your mind?’ or whisper her secrets to me. Ever since then I’ve been chasing the desire to not only grab red but to also invite people to sit with my characters.

The horror narrative had always been within me, I just didn’t know what to do with it. Having that moment with Cookie made me realise that a photograph holds so much power. Horror gives me the freedom to get truly creative, there’s no strict guidelines to follow and I hate having to water down my stories just so it can be liked by everyone. I’ve made peace with the fact that my work isn’t meant for everyone... against the grain, once again. I write, I sketch, I basically do everything—I’m a gemini. Instilling my artistic expression with a sinister and eerie disposition is my love language. I sit with it all and let it impregnate my brain. Writing is also the source of my creation, and when there are very well-written characters on screen who you’re able to resonate with, there’s this fantasy that’s attached to it. ‘I am her, she is me’ allowing her to take the driving seat.

Who or what are your biggest inspirations—be it filmmakers, artists, or comic books—that influence your work and aesthetic?

I get my inspiration from cinema! I’m very drawn to film directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Craven, Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese—all of the big boys. They know how to create and set tension in a scene. I’ve grown severely attached to films like The Shining, Psycho, Eyes Wide Shut, From Dusk til Dawn and Scorsese’s short film The Big Shave. Nadia Lee Cohen is an artist I admire. I’ll never forget when I came across her Taylor Wessing winning portrait American Nightmare, that was the beginning for me. The second I saw the rabbit mask, I wanted to be in that room. I love her use of the obscure characters, the costume design, the set, the lighting. It’s all so deliberate and so different. I didn’t know something like this was achievable! She knows how to captivate your attention, how to set the scene and it’s always a story—always. The second I figured out how to develop my own concoction of storytelling and style, I found more ways to have my stories slither under amber light and into peoples peripheral vision.

I never pictured myself as a photographer when I was growing up. I don’t know whether I’d call myself a photographer, artist or a filmmaker, I’m still figuring that part out. I know I’m connected to cinema. It runs in my veins, it’s in my bloodstream, I can’t stop it. I love over-exaggerated and over the top dramatics, I have this thing where I’m constantly using my eyes as if they’re cameras filming everything, zooming in and out of people's faces, collecting take away shots of the way their skin wrinkles when they smile, or when they’re eating and laughing. I have a funny way of seeing things.

Looking into the future, what would your dream path or project look like? Anything we can look forward to as we grow with you?

More screen time! Directing is definitely where I’m heading. My dream project would be to finally work on my short dark comedy Horny Girl. I’ve been holding onto her for years now. I would be doing the cinema screen a disservice if I don’t try and get this off paper and into production. I like challenges, and I’m all about trying new things.

Speaking of new things, I'm also spending more time finessing my writing. I’ve been compiling all my written pieces, essays where I’ve analysed the structure of horror films enough that it’s tattooed into every compartment of my brain, into a book. It’ll be a look into gender exploitation in modern horror films and the influence it has on my work. It’ll also be accompanied by pages of all my original doodles. So you see my entire creative process. I’ve titled it PTSD (Personally Telling Self Delusions)... very on brand, don’t you think? I have no idea when I’ll be releasing the pages but very soon… so keep your eyes wide open!