Only a little while into ‘Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale’ and you know that you have stumbled upon a little gem that is guaranteed to become a cult classic… and has just possible made the Hollywood list of films that should be re-made sometime soon.
This is also possibly one of the hardest films to actually classify into a genre. While it’s mostly a thriller there is also a healthy dose of horror mixed in with some black comedy, and to his credit writer/director, Jalmari Helander (‘Zero Deux’, ‘Fakiiri’) actually does the unthinkable and ties these three genres together in a way that truly makes the film memorable… although the sight of 100 nude elderly (mostly out-of-shape) men running towards the camera at the end of the film is also pretty difficult to get out of your head (okay I’ll be honest it’s burnt onto my retinas) as well.
The story works remarkably well and gets it point across like a velvet-sledgehammer. In the 1930s Coca Cola invented the nice and cuddly Santa that we know today, but when a group of archaeologists dig up the burial site of Santa they discover a severely demonic Santa that reeks havoc on the nearby residents, especially on a young boy (that knows the truth about Santa), Pietari (Onni Tommila – ‘Last Cowboy Standing’) and his father, a reindeer hunter, Rauno (Jorma Tommila – ‘Priest Of Evil’,’ The Cradle’)… and that’s not including the havoc that his eleves manage to create as well.
It’s surprising that this film works because it is almost as if Helander sets the film up to fail. When you think about the fact that the audience has to feel sorry for a group of reindeer hunters, killers of an innocent animal that most people seem to love, you straight away think the script is the bottom of a big hill and will struggle to get off the ground. But believe it or not Helander makes the characters so likeable you simply can’t help but feel yourself barracking for them. Secondedly, Helander takes Santa, one of the world’s most beloved characters and tries to get us to see him as something demonic… something again that surprisingly he manages to pull off. The elves and Santa in this film are so demonic and evil that I left the cinema wanting to punch the next apartment store Santa I see… in the head.
In fact the only thing that lets down this film is a bit of a weak ending. The set-up is all there but the ending comes about far too easily, and in such away that it actually pushes Pietari down into the precocious-child bin, a place he certainly doesn’t deserve to be. The bad ending also makes the film feel way too long… a huge worry considering the film is only 80mins in length.
While the weak ending takes some of the shine off ‘Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale’ it does ultimately become a great little cult classic that is certainly worth the ticket price for. One of the few comedy-horrors that actually works, a must for anyone that loves their film on the quirky side.
Year: 2010
Director: Jalmari Helander
Stars: Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila
Classification: M
Runtime: 83mins
Rating: 
Available on DVD from 7th December, 2011