Review of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) by Thomas D — 18 Dec 2010

25 DAYS OF HELLIDAY HORROR.

#17: RARE EXPORTS: A Christmas Tale (2010).

Every now and then one may come across an exceptionally strange, underground movie such as 'Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.' The movie certainly does deserve to have the word 'Rare' in the title, because it is ultra-rare! Especially here in the US where It only premiered in select theaters. I was lucky enough to catch a matinee show in Denver. (thank you Landmark theaters).

The story is about a wealthy billionaire who funds a drilling excavation in the Korvatunturi mountains, a freezing mountain range on the border of Russia and Finland. The excavation goes horribly wrong when the workers unearth a terrible evil of Christmas that has been laying dormant 486 meters deep inside of the mountain!...the evil of Santa Claus!

Overall: The movie was worth it. It was a nice addition to Helliday Horror. It really did a great job of integrating the lore of christmas into a new hellish tale of terror. It did have a disappointing amount of gore however. The way the movie poster looks you would think that Santa is just ripping off heads and such. If 'Rare Exports' had to be placed into just one genre category, it would probably be filed under fantasy or adventure, but it does contain many horror elements, such as the directing and the overall theme of 'Christmas Evil'. It is not by any means a gorefest or a slasher, its more of a mixture of fantasy, horror, comedy, and suspense. There are many kills, but most of them happen off-screen. The movie also adds in a very strange twist to the whole Santa Claus/ Elves myth. Yeah, finally we get some killer Christmas Elves yesss! Well...not exactly. The 'Elves' are not really what you would expect. It must be seen to be believed. It was directed well, had good special effects, good cast and decent acting. although the main little kid does become rather annoying from time to time. Surprisingly the story wasn't half bad. The only real complaints that have surfaced so far are A) There was not enough blood and gore, and B) They should have shown more of the thing frozen in the ice!!! If you want to know more, watch the movie, if you can find it! Merry Christmas everybody.