Hyvää Joulua! For the second day in a row, I am stepping outside of the English language cinema for my Christmas kicks. This film is also the first Finnish film I have ever seen (to the best of my knowledge), and what better place to start than with another murderous Santa Claus film? Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) is the story of a small village that makes its money from hunting and selling reindeer. However, when the reindeer are all wiped out mysteriously the villagers blame the excavation of the nearby mountain for this. However, it turns out that the excavation unleashed a long-lost secret that, if not stopped, has the ability to change Christmas forever.
I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone that the secret that I mentioned in the synopsis is in fact the long-frozen Santa Claus who had centuries been lured there in an attempt to stop his rampage. I am always on board for taking the Santa story and making him an evil entity who has morphed into a more jolly character through the millennia. And this film does this in a fun way. There isn’t a huge amount to say in terms of the film’s technical competence. It is shot well, acted well and is proficient in almost all technical aspects. There are a couple of CGI shots towards the end of the film that hasn’t aged the best, but they aren’t distracting so I am really clutching at straws to find genuine faults with the technical side of the film. What I found as a pleasant surprise was that the film turned out to be much more of a horror comedy than just the straight-up horror film, I was expecting it to be. The comedy isn’t in your face and is a little more subtle, but it is the subtlety that makes the scenarios funny as you have these characters acting subtly when faced with these absurdist scenarios that make the film funny.
Again, I am going to be spoiling the film somewhat going forward as its narrative does take some twists so be warned. And the film's big twist is a fun one. The film lulls you into thinking that the Santa that is dug up is your standard old man with long white hair and a beard, except this one has a penchant for murder, and the characters in the film are also of this belief. So, when the film pulls the rug out from underneath you and reveals that who we thought was Santa is in fact one of his elves it is a fun twist, and it is set up in a way where it works and doesn’t come out of completely nowhere. Even what felt like a throwaway line in that all the radiators had been stolen from the houses comes back into play as it is shown that they are being used to defrost this huge, Krampus-like Santa. It is a twist that feels earned rather than forced and it works. The film also works as a father/son bonding film where it starts as seemingly a father who does not understand his son who does not seem to fit into the world his father is a part of. However, we also see that the father is trying to take on a maternal role as the mother has passed away and how much he struggles with this. It allows us to see each side of the relationship and sympathise with both sides, and it also allows for growth from each character. It adds an extra theme and dimension to what could have easily just been a straight-up horror-comedy and made me appreciate the film much more.
For my first Finnish language film, I am glad that it was Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. It isn’t a blow-your-socks-off film in any real sense. But it is a lot of fun and has enough emotional weight to make it completely worth your time. It is available on Amazon Prime so if you have that and 90 minutes to spare definitely seek it out.
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