Deformed humans, enormous women, frozen babies, hypersexualized creatures, nightmarish visions in metal and flesh: who is the man behind the myth of H.R. Giger? Symbolized by the creature in the cult movie Alien, within the career of the Swiss artist hides many other things, thanks to a unique imagination, a passionate life and an extraordinary artistry.

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From the monster mother in the Alien movies to his hallucinogenic, biomechanical visions, H.R. Giger gave mankind its most beautiful and troubling nightmares. Filmed shortly before his death last May, this documentary by Belinda Sallin offers a look at the iconoclastic Swiss artist, propelled to fame by his Hollywood experience and a Best Special Effects Oscar in 1980. A visit into the lair of the man, weakened but still direct, spiced with interviews with those near to him, including his wife. It offers heated conversations with Twentieth Century Fox, a copyright infringement suit against a rock band, and a painting created under the influence of LSD – “I must say this occurred rarely,” explains his wife. There are also a few clues to Giger’s approach, including an anecdote about a mummy that traumatized him to the point where he went into therapy and learned to control his fear through art. But these few snippets are lost within a laborious documentary that has neither passion nor strength, with no clear method despite its fascinating subject. The movie is still interesting, though, thanks also to a final morbid quote from Giger, filmed a few months before his death: “I don’t believe in life after death. I don’t want it, in any case. After death, everything stops.”