H.R Giger was the brains behind Alien, the greatest horror movie ever to grace our screen. Yet he is known only in the arts and film industries so much so that people coming out of Alien: Covenant and seeing his name in the credits are asking “Who is H.R Giger?”

With the release of Alien in 1979 came the introduction of the most iconic, horrifying, but graceful alien ever to come to the big screen: the Xenomorph. Almost 40 years later, it has made its appearance again in Alien: Covenant. Which leads us to wonder, why is H.R Giger not a household name in the same way Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott are?

The Xenomorph designed by H.R Giger was cold, metallic and beautiful. It also had some strong sexual themes, which you might not have picked up on in the Alien movie.

H.R Giger was the brains behind the designs in the Aliens movie, including “The Pilot”. Source: H.R Giger’s Alien

The Xenomorph H.R Giger designed was a combination of organism and metal, with a little bit of humanity thrown in. It’s remarkable that H.R Giger managed to make such a creature seem so natural and believable as a creature that fits into our world.

The sexual influences in H.R Giger’s work are very apparent if you have ever read some of his books.

You can see the sexual influences in Giger’s art particularly in The Facehugger. Source: H.R Giger’s Alien

H.R Giger’s Alien is a must for horror film fans as it shows what I can only class as sexually explicit works of art weaved into metallic and creatures with a bit of humanity. If you don’t mind, we’ll let you figure out all the sexual connotations yourselves from the pictures. Once you notice it, it’s pretty hard to miss.

You can see the inspiration behind Alien in that book. The journey from “egg” to “Facehugger” to “chestburster”, and then finally to the main Alien. The “Xenomorph” was every bit as horrifying as your darkest, and it was wonderfully realistic and plausible.

Some of the later stages in design for the Xenomorph. Source: H.R Giger’s Alien

If you are one of the people asking “Who is H.R Giger?”, then you can quieten down, and find more on H.R Giger’s Alien designs here.

H.R Giger used the design of the main alien to inform the rest of the creative in the Alien movie, and for the planet LV-426. Given his huge involvement – not just in Alien but in setting the standard for space aliens, which still hasn’t been equalled even 40 years later – H.R Giger deserves more credit than perhaps he ever received.

If you were to think of the Alien franchise, who would spring to mind?

Ridley Scott? Sigourney Weaver? Michael Biehn? James Cameron? It disappoints me that H.R Giger’s name perhaps isn’t on the list, outside of the arts and film industries. And I hope anyone reading this article puts his name into Google and has a look at the passion he put into Alien, and his other projects.

It’s a nice, respectful mark to his genius that for the latest Alien: Covenant Ridley Scott brought back the original design of the Alien, which is all we ever wanted.

So who is H.R Giger?

An ode to H.R Giger – his Alien design is used in Alien: Covenant. Source: 20th Century Fox

Well, now you know. He was the lead artist and designer for the Alien movie, and his design influence was used throughout the entire franchise. He is arguably the most important person in the franchise’s history and produced such wonderful designs such as “The Derelict ship”, “The Egg”, “The Facehugger”, “The Chest-burster” and “The Xenomorph”.

H.R Giger passed away in 2014, but his alien designs can still be seen in Alien: Covenant (2017), which is in cinemas now.

