Review: Dark Star - H.R. Giger's World

Those looking for an insightful look into artist H.R. Giger, famous for his designs for Ridley Scott's Alien, will be disappointed. Those hoping for a history of his art and work will also be disappointed. Ultimately Dark Star-H.R. Giger's World is best looked at as a document of his final days and a testament to his satisfaction with his life. Giger died shortly after the filming stopped.

Belinda Sallin is far too enamored by just being in Giger's presence to find any throughline for the film. Giger seems ill in the film, barely wanting to talk on camera. Still the fly-on-the-wall feel does provide a sense of what it would be like to spend a day with the man. The film does interview his longtime assistants and ex-wives but these moments never illuminate anything about the weird, morbid, and phallic art.

Occasionally there are moments of these insights. Giger talks about his father giving him a human skull when his was 6. He also talks of being terrified by an Egyptian mummy museum exhibit. These recollections may explain some of Giger's obsession with death. What isn't explained is the erotic nature of his work. One wonders if Sallin was too modest to bring it up. 

The film spends an unbalanced amount of time with Giger's assistant, who recalls what a fan he was and how Giger's work inspired his metal band. This feels particularly like filler material when it is next to small amount of time spent on the suicide of Giger's one true lover, a woman who appears in so much of his work. 

2.5/5