Review of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) by Colton M — 28 Apr 2014

Here's a real oddity, this started life as Rare Exports Inc. (2003), a short film produced by Finnish commercials production company Woodpecker Film and written and directed by Jalmari Helander and Juuso Helander.

7 years later, Jalmari Helander got the money to make a feature film version of the short film. It's a very original take on the Santa Claus myth, giving it an offbeat horror twist. Set around the Korvatunturi mountain region in northeast Finland, a mining company comes across a massive burial ground deep within the mountain, and it affects a group of local reindeer herders in a nearby village.

Single father Rauno Kontio (Jorma Tommila) and his young son Pietari (Onni Tommila) notice weird things going on, Pietari even sets traps for whatever is going around the village. Even his friend Juuso (Ilmari Järvenpää) vanishes one night, replaced by a wooden carving of a boy.

When Rauno discovers a shriveled bearded man (Peeter Jakobi) in one of the traps. He takes this stranger to an abattoir to be questioned about what's going on. It's a very weird film, but it has some dark laughs and a very original concept at it's heart.

Not all Christmas films have to be nice, the likes of Black Christmas (1974/2006) and Bad Santa (2003) proved that. But it has an eerie edge from it's remote and sparse setting, but it's original in it's execution and concept and it's a true one off.