Thu, Sep 3 / 7 pm
Fri & Sat, Sep 4 & 5 / 9 pm
Wed, Sep 9 / 7 pm
Thu, Sep 10 / 9 pm
Directed by Belinda Sallin
2014, Switzerland, 95 min
Where others flee, he makes his home. What others dread, he makes his habitat. What others fight to suppress, he drags back to the surface. Surrealist artist H. R. Giger terrified audiences with his Oscar-winning monsters in Ridley Scott’s Alien. Sci-fi, horror, music, album covers, tattoos and fetish art have been influenced by his intricate and nightmarish paintings and sculptures depicting birth, death and sex. In the film, Giger reminisces about holding a skull in his hands for the first time as a 6-year-old boy, as if it were only yesterday. A gift from his father, it was the start of Giger being the bearer of dark messages, charting our nightmares, drafting maps of our subconscious and moulding our primal fears. Both a mesmerizing introduction to Giger’s oeuvre and a must-see for Giger devotees, this definitive documentary shares the last years of the artist’s life and reveals how deeply he resided within his own dark artistic visions.
Reviews
If you’ve seen the extraordinary horror thriller
Alien then you’ve encountered the world of surrealist artist H.R. Giger. He was part of the team that won an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for their work on the film. Highlights of
Dark Star are the excellent archival footage of his earlier work during the 70’s 'poster' phase and behind-the-scenes footage from
Alien.
— Dave Taylor, Dave on Film
