Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale - Finnish
"Here comes Santa Claus" never sounded so scary.
Based on the award winning short films of Finnish director Jalmari Helander, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a story of what happens when Santa GETS REAL. Buried deep within the Korvatunturi mountains lies the true secret of Christmas, and an obsessed eccentric will stop at nothing to unearth it. Everyone gets more than they bargained for when two local boys go snooping around and accidentally let it out. Forget lumps of coal in your stocking, this Santa has much worse in store.
I went into Rare Exports knowing little more than that it was about an "evil Santa," and was expecting something akin to "Silent Night, Deadly Night" or even "Black Christmas." I was anticipating, perhaps, a typical slasher or monster movie, except that we'd see victims impaled with candy canes behind the Christmas tree. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this film is so much more. Adding an extra level of interest and richness, Rare Exports actually draws it's horror from Old World Finnish Christmas tales, in which Santa was not a benevolent elf, but a frightening monster who doled out terrifying punishments to naughty children. Though the yuletide cautionary tales of yore have now largely been replaced with more cheerful, Americanized Santa stories, Finnish audiences will likely be familiar with the mythos behind Rare Exports. But for those of us raised on visions of sugarplums, in which being naughty got you no worse than a lump of coal in your stocking and a "bad" Santa meant that the guy in the mall was tipsy and had fake-looking whiskers, this story feels uniquely fresh and original.
Our tale centers around a young boy named Pietari (Onni Tommila), who lives in a small, remote community with his widower father. Their town, of course, just so happens to be adjacent to a mysteriously restricted excavation site. Upon snooping around with his friend, Pietari becomes suspicious that the digging operation has unearthed the entombed Santa Claus, but his friend dismisses this theory. Soon enough, however, strange things start to befall the tiny town, and only Pietari has any idea what is going on. Part of the joy of this film is watching a young boy, initially too sensitive to see his father butcher a pig, really come into his own in his quest to save his family and his friends. In a lot of ways, this film feels like a throwback to '80's kids' films, in which filmmakers weren't afraid to put their child protagonists in real danger and let them find their own ways out. While I wouldn't say that Rare Exports is scary, per se, it is decidedly creepy in moments, and the danger to our characters is convincing. The beautiful setting is used to incredible effect in creating just the right mood. Mixed with the horror elements is a wickedly dark sense of humor, which keeps the mood edgy without ever going so far as to be silly. The human aspects of the story, Pietari's coming of age and developing relationship with his father, are handled with the perfect amount of sweetness so as to be touching and believable, without becoming schmaltzy. I feel that Helander's real triumph here is managing to make a touching, funny, creepy, holiday horror film that somehow manages to do justice to all those components without any of them detracting from the others.
At this point, you might be wondering if this is a film for the whole family. Obviously, that is a decision for each parent to consider, taking into account one's own children's sensitivities. If it helps, however, I would say that this film is frightening on about the same level as Gremlins. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that this film has a generous amount of male nudity. It is completely non-sexual in nature, but be forewarned, Rare Exports will treat you to more old man parts than you've likely ever seen in a Christmas movie.
Even if you don't take the kids, you owe it to yourself to see this film. It's a positively delightful blend of quirky, creepy fun, with a lot of heart and a final scene that more than pays off. Be sure to put it on your Christmas lists, boys and girls, and remember...Santa knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake!
