Review of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) by Jani M — 04 Dec 2010

Finnish fantasy/horror that tells a tale about original santa claus from pagan times hundreds of years before coca-cola-santa. Santa that was all about punishing bad children and not so much about gifts.

Story happens in Korvatunturi, Finland but is mostly filmed in Norway. Characters are very Finnish, serious bearded men in barren lapland with no females in sight. Life is harsh and archeological dig has spooked wolves to attack reindeers and so threatening livelihood.

Things start to get weird when naked mysterious old man triggers a wolftrap. Film had right amount of suspense, humor, horror and probably feel quite exotic to people outside nordics. There wasn't terribly much special effects but ones used did the job pretty good .

.. specially considering that we are talking about very low budget production. Film was paced very nicely and didn't feel boring at any point. Ending left plenty of room for sequel in a way that it doesn't lock it's setting to Finland.

I'm a bit afraid that male nudity in the film will hurt it's chances on American market even that it feels very natural for us finns. I really enjoyed this movie and it topped my expectations.