Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a Finnish Spin on the Origins of Santa as We Know Him
| Tweet | |
|
|
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a Santa origin story equal parts dark, fun, action-packed, and full of wonder. It may involve kids, but it’s definitely not FOR kids.
Written by James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
December 4, 2011
Release: 2010 (Various Countries and Festivals), October 25, 2011 (US DVD)
Directed by: Jalmari Helander
Written by: Jalmari Helander, Juuso Helander, Petri Jokiranta, Sami Parkkinen
Starring:
Onni Tommila as Pietari Kontio
Jorma Tommila as Rauno Kontio
Rauno Juvonen as Piiparinen
Tommi Korpela as Aimo
Ilmari Järvenpää as Juuso
Welcome to the Korvatunturi mountain in Finland. Here, a group of workers are putting all their efforts into excavating something from deep inside the mountain. Meanwhile, a group of reindeer herders further down the mountain are preparing to corral a group of the animals for food and sales over the long winter. Unfortunately, something has slaughtered almost all of the reindeer in the area and left their carcasses in an open field near where the excavation is happening. Meanwhile, children and various heating implements have gone missing from the nearby townsfolk. It all seems to be linked to a strange, feral old man (Peeter Jakobi) that young Pietari and his father Rauno (Onni and Jorman Tommila) accidentally caught in a trap on their property. The man seems mostly unresponsive but has a tendency to react violently around gingerbread and children. Pietari, who’s been reading up on the history of Santa, believes the old man to be the dark old elf who legend said spanked and tormented the naughty children until he was captured and encased in the mountain. Together, the group decides to sell Santa to the men who were trying to dig him out to help recoup the money lost from the reindeer. But things may not be exactly what they seem as this old man also has some “elves”…
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is another entry in the
welcome and growing subgenre of dark Christmas tales and Santa stories.
This time around, Jalmari Helander and his brother Juuso worked
together and combined ideas from two of their own popular short films
with real Finnish Santa folklore to create a very dark and creepy
version of the Jolly Old Elf. It works tremendously well by bringing
Santa back to his darker roots, centering the story on a child and
having him be the most knowledgeable character, and balancing its
darkness with a sense of fun and wonder welcome in any Holiday movie.
First and foremost, the horror aspect of this story would not work if the feral old man played by Peeter Jakobi did not look and act as he does. With minimal movement and no lines, the character still manages to be deeply unsettling. This partially comes from his appearance alone as he is near-skeletal and basically naked with his beard and hair wildly unkempt and his skin filthy, looking absolutely nothing like the red suited, fat, jolly, clean symbol we all know by sight. Besides that, the simple actions of flaring his nostrils and twitching at the smell of cookies or sound and smell of children are unexpectedly chilling in his hands. Couple that with a later scene featuring a mob of similar looking creatures attacking and it’s easy to see how this version of Santa could easily give young children nightmares.
The equally important other side of the coin is that Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale needs the childlike innocence and
perspective of Pietari as played by Onni Tommila to prevent it from
being too scary. At first the child is a little annoying and also has
an annoying habit of not listening to his father when he tells him to
stay put. However, as the movie rolls on, he becomes considerably more
likable and turns out to be the only character who understands exactly
what his father and friends have captured. In the end, in fact, it’s
HIS plan and actions that play a vital role and lead, quite correctly,
to his father complimenting him on being a great man.
In the end, it’s this delicate balance between styles that makes Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale such a unique delight. Some Christmas horror works better in a more extreme, over-the-top, cheesy style (like the classic Silent Night, Deadly Night). However, this film is more suited to playing almost everything straight and letting the darkness of the storyline be balanced by the general absurdity of elements of the situation. While the old man is terrifying and the story has an undeniably dark sense about it, there are also moments that are just inherently funny throughout the film. The climax and ending even feature some great, action movie-style one-liners and mind-blowing, awe and wonder-inspiring visuals!
All of this combines to make Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale a unique, and balanced movie that, while not necessarily for children, is definitely for the kids in the rest of us Horror Freaks. The world needs more movies like this that remind us of the dark and light sides of Santa while still having a sense of Christmas spirit and wonder to spare. If there’s any justice, this weird and wonderful film absolutely will become the new Christmas horror classic it deserves to be.
Questions or
comments about Rare Exports: A
Christmas Tale? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
Take me to Horror Movie Reviews!
Movie Trailer:
Horror Movie Freaks is the FREE eZine from Best-Horror-Movies.com that will give you the new horror releases, the new horror news and the new horror reviews that you CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT!!
Subscribing is easy, painless and free.
Do it NOW!!
