A Christmas Tale (2010)

A wacky action-comedy-fantasy about an evil Santa Claus? FromFinland? Sign me up! Even if it didn't have the added bonus of giving me a new country to add to my foreign film list, I'd still be interested. Rare Exports tells the strange and surprisingly horrific tale of small community at the base of the Korvantunturi mountains which finds itself terrorized at Christmas with reindeer slaughter, stolen radiators, and missing children. Young Pietari (Onni Tommila) is convinced that the real, demonic Santa ("The Coca-Cola Santa Claus is a hoax!") has been dug up from his icy grave in the mountains to wreak havoc on children all over the world. He teams up with his gruff father and other men of the community to take down this hulking menace and his hordes of naked elves.

At a trim 84 minutes, this movie gets shit done and never drags. It's funny, scary, odd, and violent in all the best ways, and I really just appreciated its twist on Santa Claus. The story is pretty simple, but told well with enough moments of quiet tension, adorable comedy, and all-out action to keep viewers wholly engaged. The lead kid is pretty goofy, sporting a homemade suit of armor and a ridiculous haircut for most of the film. Everybody's got mullets and guns and rides snowmobiles everywhere. It's just like America, really, only more whimsical.

I assume Rare Exports didn't have the biggest budget, so I really appreciated how the filmmakers limited the use of bad CGI and manipulated the audience's imagination for the fullest effect. Considering its premise, it takes a surprisingly subtle approach that made it all the more impressive as a film. The concept could have gotten stale or stretched too thin pretty quickly, but writer/director Jalmari Helander is smart in his handling of the material. It's just a really fun, entertaining movie, and certainly one to add for frequent future Christmas viewings. We can always use more of those!

4.5/5

Pair This Movie With: It would make an excellent double feature with John Carpenter's The Thing, just trust me.

PS The feature film is actually a prequel to some short films Helander did about a company that hunts down, trains, and ships "Father Christmases" for various countries. Check it out: