Legendary graphic artist H.R. Giger is the subject of a new documentary by filmmaker Belinda Sallin. Titled Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World, the film aims to shed a light on the Swiss artist’s last years. Before he passed away in May, the light-hearted, humourous man was responsible for plaguing the nightmares of countless moviegoers worldwide with his terrifying creations.

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His most recognizable and famous work was a project he was commissioned to design for British director, Ridley Scott – the Alien xenomorph. His snarling, double-jawed and altogether horrific creature went on to dominate the entire movie franchise. But it was its first appearance, in Scott’s original 1979 work, that landed the artist an Oscar.

Sallin’s work delves into Giger’s personal world of darkness, as seen in this first English-language preview for the documentary. There’s no question that he was a gifted sculptor of man’s biggest fear: that which lingers in the shadows. Judging by what’s on show here, the final film seeks to venture even further into what made Giger tick, how he created and what he left behind.

Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World is currently playing in theatres across Switzerland, with no other release dates confirmed as yet.

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. Throughout his life, HR Giger inhabited the world of the uncanny: a dark universe on the brink of many an abyss.

He did not create this world because he held it dear, but rather because he had no other option. It was the only way this amiable, modest and humorous man was able to keep his fears in check. Giger was merely the bearer of dark messages, charting our nightmares, drafting maps of our subconscious and moulding our primal fears.