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The traditional Christmas Santa Claus movie seems to appear every year and follow the same pattern of cheerful family fun as jolly old St Nick saves the day and delivers his usual round of presents. Having done everything over the years from defeating Satan in the bizarre Mexican film simply entitled Santa Claus to the truly abysmal sci-fi adventure Santa Conquers the Martians, almost every angle for a Father Christmas film seemed taken. Yet Rare Exports still manages to take rather different approach to the old bearded fellow, revelling instead in the fact that ‘the coca cola version is a lie’. Director Jalmari Helander follows on from his two previous short films and, using the old legends of his native Finland as inspiration, creates a figure who’s only interested in punishing naughty children with sensibilities akin to that of Futurama’s evil robot to make something almost unheard of: an original film about Santa.
The film opens with some individuals claiming to be seismic scientists uncovering an ancient burial mound in which lies the dormant original Santa Claus, a violent, nightmarish being who beats, tortures, and kills those he deems immoral. Admittedly, this is not the first time evil Father Christmas has appeared in cinema, most notably in the lacklustre slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night that suffered an outright UK ban in the mid 80s. This, however, is very different beast and is throughout (as you might have guessed) very tongue-in-cheek, being far more comic then terrifying. That is not to say that the horror elements are badly done, but simply that they never dominate the film, remaining low key and allowing the audience to fully enjoy, and never cease to be amused by, the outrageous concept. By far the best thing about the film is the fact it never takes itself too seriously and happily embroils the viewer in its ridiculous fantasy from start to finish, adapting it with new ideas throughout and therefore remaining fresh and fun.
The film’s acting and direction are also rather charming and whilst not exceptional, they are certainly good enough to retain interest and never hamper the film. Even the film’s child protagonist Pietari (Onni Tommila) remains effective throughout, so that we actually care for him rather, avoiding the problem of becoming annoying that often plagues such leads. As for the rest of the film, the special effects are handled well and work effectively at helping to create the monster and become increasingly more important before the film’s finale, which I have to say is rather wonderful and ends the film on a real high point.
In truth, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale isn’t really anything too special but it does make for very entertaining and surprisingly different festive viewing. With its running time an admittedly rather short at just 83 minutes, it never overstays its welcome and never drags, instead making for a rather special festive treat.
Rare Exports opens in cinemas on Friday 3rd December.
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