Surrealist artist H. R. Giger (1940-2014) terrified audiences with his Oscar-winning monsters in Ridley Scott’s Alien. His dark, intricate paintings and sculptures depicting birth, death and sex have influenced sc-fi, horror, music, album covers, tattoos and fetish art.

Belinda Sallin’s documentary Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World shares the intimate last years of the artist’s life and reveals how deeply he resided within his own artistic visions.

Behind the shuttered windows and ivy-covered walls of his residence in Zurich, Switzerland, Dark Star brings viewers into Giger’s mysterious realm–from the first skull he was given by his father at the age of six, to macabre dinner parties with his close-knit team, to the grisly souvenirs from his time spent on the Alien set and reminiscences about model Li Tobler, Giger’s one-time muse, whose suicide reverberates throughout his work.

The film also addresses Giger’s complex relationship to the art world, where he defied traditional categories and embraced commercial projects for musicians including Debbie Harry, Korn, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and the Dead Kennedys. 

After a festival run, Dark Star plays theatrically across the U.S. and Canada starting on May 15, released by Icarus Films and KimStim. 

Credits

Belinda Sallin, director; Marcel Hoehn, producer.

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