Ho Ho Holy hell this is awesome. I got to hand it to those Scandinavian countries and their wacky sensibilities cause this is just plain awesome. While I like to keep holiday related films confined to their respective months, I can’t pass up the opportunity to talk about this movie which was recently released on Netflix. Based on a short film of the same name, Rare Exports is now one of my favorite holiday films.
Christmas takes a turn for the grim when a team of Finnish archaeologists unearth a man who appears to be Old St. Nick, only to find that the legends of a jolly, gentle cherub couldn’t be further from the truth. Enraged at the multinational corporation that underwrote the excavation for disrupting his village’s annual reindeer roundup — one of the few yearly events that help to keep the local economy afloat — single father and reindeer hunter Rauno (Jorma Tommila) is shocked when his frail son, Pietari (Onni Tommila), makes a curious connection between the high-profile dig and the story of Father Christmas. The local reindeer herd has been viciously slaughtered, and now all of Pietari’s friends are vanishing without a trace. When Pietari looks beyond pop-culture history to unlock the real truth about Santa Claus, he learns that his young friends have every reason to fear this Christmas. By the time Pietari realizes what’s happening in his small town, however, it’s already too late; Santa’s helpers are closing in fast, and this year the naughty kids will be running scared. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
There have been some interesting Santa related horror films done in the past decade. You got stuff like Christmas Evil (1980), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) and even Santa’s Slay (2005) all deal with the killer Santa theme, but none take the tale and fable of Santa Claus to the heights that Rare Exports does. Rooted in some Finnish folklore, Rare Exports is a darker take on the story, giving the idea that Santa doesn’t reward good kids, but just punishes the bad ones. I would take it as a win since you get to keep your life if you were and life is truly the greatest gift of all.
The film manages to be a really entertaining and refreshing horror film with leftover crumbs of dark comedy mixed into the feel of the movie to create a nice gift wrapped film for everyone to enjoy. Well, maybe not everyone, kids specifically. I always found it interesting that a man dressed in a red suit can break into any house without restraint and catch us when we are most vulnerable. This should scare the shit out of you that maybe, just maybe, Santa Claus isn’t coming into your house to leave presents.
Rare Exports is a rare (ugh) films that manages to take a unique spin on the myth of Santa Claus, give it a shiny wrapping and presented to us as the ultimate lump of coal. That isn’t a bad thing mind you, cause frankly this film is a total joy to watch and experience if not for Santa’s helpers and the notion that you can hold old Saint Nick for ransom. It’s a funny movie of the dark variety and really creative storytelling from Finnish director Jalmari Helander. Twisted, inventive, funny, dark, and downright entertaining means that I have a new Christmas movie to contend with Die Hard.
*images via RottenTomatoes
