Rare Exports: A Christmas TaleDirector: Jalmari Helander
Starring: Jorma Tommila, Onni Tommila and Peeter Jakobi
Year: 2010
Watched: 1/1/11
What the fudge is it?
Deep beneath a mountain in Finland Santa is buried (not like Ryan Reynolds) in a block of ice. A corporation sends a team of archaeologists to dig up the jolly old bastard. This is not the Coca-cola Santa....before you know it children start disappearing and all kinds of weird stuff begins to happen. A local group of hunters decide to take Santa hostage and sell him back to the corporation who began the dig but the Elves are not happy....
What i thought...
The movie acts as a prequel to 2 YouTube shorts, Rare exports and The Official Rare Exports inc Safety instructions. I decided to avoid the YouTube shorts until after seeing the video and i would recommend everyone to do the same.
So a horror film about Santa....you would think this could be dodgy, Jack Frost springs to mind. Anyone who has seen Jack Frost will remember the bath rape scene in which Jack Frost melts into the bath before becoming "Solid" again and having his way with the poor girl. Incase you havent seen it i have chucked it in here...Enjoy.
Do not worry Rare exports does not follow the same trashy road and is fantastic!
The film takes us to Finland in the days building up to Christmas. We learn of a corporations plan to big up the jolly big lad in time for Christmas. But something goes wrong....the dig team disappears, raindeer are found slaughtered and kids start going missing. One person seems to know what is going on. Pietari the son of one of the reindeer hunters has done his research and he knows that Santa is not a nice lad.
The whole film has a tense snowy feel to it which reminded of alot of the thing and let the right one in. There are few jumps but the scenes in which we see the group of hunters interrogate their captured santa are great. The tension and horror is spliced with dark humor throughout and the balance is spot on, i am still not sure if i watched a horror or a dark comedy. It did remind me of Gremlins which I love and would count it as one of my favorite Christmas films.
The film messes with the traditional view of Santa and mythology. Everything is given a dark twist and the main kid in the story even states the this "Is not the Coca-Cola Santa" that we all know and love. The idea of an old fat dude sneaking into your house no longer seems like a good thing. There are so many nice little touches and jokes throughout such as the pamphlet handed out to workers at the archeological dig to ensure that they all stay on the nice list and avoid pissing off the big man himself.
Pietari is without a doubt the star of the show, played by Omni Tomilla he is fantastic and offers alot of the comic relief.
Don't be fooled by his love for gingerbread. The man is hard as nails.
Everything about the little guys performance is great one minute he makes you feel sorry for him and his distant relationship with his dad. The next minute he has you laughing because he has taped padding to his ass incase Santa spanks him. in the final third of the film the little man turns into what can only be described as a tiny John McClane.
Overall:
If your a bit weird and count Gremlins or god forbid Jack Frost among your favorite Christmas films then this one is definitely for you. Thought it was great from start to finish. Still feels like a quirky dark short but with hoards of evil elves and a big ass Santa! As soon as you finish watching it get online and enjoy the shorts.
5/5
Links to YouTube shorts.
I've just learnt that there's more than one film called Jack Frost. This isn't much fun, but I didn't remember that scene appearing in it.
ReplyDeleteI have seen both. For all the wrong reasons the horror version stuck in my head more. Although i do remember Batman/Ken being in a band of some kind and playing a harmonica. Certainly not the type of snowman to sneak into a bath. Although the question should be how did his scarf get into the bath?
ReplyDeleteReally wanted to see this but none of the cinemas round these parts were showing it!!! Did you watch it online? No, don't answer that, you never know who's listening in ;) Anyway, just want to say, the blog's coming on great! I was after a good reliable site to get film ideas from, think you've nailed it here Matty! Though I'm not sure about the Jack Frost video- didn't watch it this time but I seen that show years ago... One for the boys, as far as I remember!
ReplyDeleteJack Frost was such a bad film. Think it only stays in my mind for how terrible it is. Dont even know if it is one for the boys just one for weirdos really. Glad your enjoying, Im up to no. 10 now so just need my writing to catch up.
ReplyDelete