Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (V)
| release date | October 25 2011 |
| studio | Oscilloscope Laboratories |
| director | Jalmari Helander |
| writer | Jalmari Helander |
| starring | Jorma Tommila, Onni Tommila, Tommi Korpela, Rauno Juvonen |
| tagline | This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus. |
| site | rareexportsmovie.com/en |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
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I saw this on the plane from San Fran to Australia and it really does remind me of Amblin.. I saw the interview where the director said it wasn’t exactly horror but it does have some creepy moments just like the ol’ Amblin movies where you were like “shit man, this is almost a kids movie but that’s fuckin scary.”
See it if you have the chance, very well done and only about 70 some minutes long so it never drags and is consistently fun throughout.
It was ok…
This movie is tons of fun totally recommend seeing this with a group of friends
not replying but like most say
It was just ok…..
I was expecting alot more to be honest, i mean its well worth the watch and unique etc. I was just expecting a really fucking evil santa and for him to really kick off haha. I was wanting some real butchering an shit going on proper slasher but its nothing to do with that.
Shame really. Still worth the watch in a light hearted kind of horror type way haha
This movie is so much fun to watch. Like nothing I have seen before. Definitely worth a rental.
Quite surprising.
Shame I could watch it in full HD, but still I bought the DVD and enjoyed a lot.
Expected, though, a bit of blood and scare here and there.
‘Fritt Vilt’, and ‘Låt den rätte komma in’ are not all that a Northern European country can bring us when it comes to horror movies.
I believe it’s the kind of movie that will have an american remake with better production. I say it’s worthy.
Beware of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale because it’s just not that good as most critics claims. I do think it had a somewhat imaginative approach having a dark twist on the old childrens tale about Santa Claus with some wit and charm but in the end it just didn’t work effectively. At only 80 something minutes it felt like forever to get to the point and when it does nothing great happens just a bunch of old naked men running around who I guess are Santa’s elves trying to protect him, you don’t even see the actual Santa!!!! All the elements they try to blend never mesh well together and the execution of them was underwhelming, the horror didn’t have terror just a crumb of suspense, the comedy didn’t have the wit, the adventure didn’t have thrills, the fantasy I didn’t get lost in just detached and the charactures just didn’t have enough background to care about them or care about their story. Overall it’s an ridiculously overrated and lackluster dark christmas tale that has zero magic and zero thrills and payoff and it was distractingly silly once you see the big picture and who knew christmas could be such a disappointing bore if you don’t have the right ingriedients. Skip it! 5 out of 10
Very creative movie. I liked how they made santa claus mean and evil. Overall could have been better but its still worth watching
Yay for “Rare Exports”, not only one of the most original genre movies I’ve seen this year, but also one of the best Christmas-themed horror film ever made (next to “Silent Night, Deadly Night”, “Gremlins” and “Black Christmas”). Imagine something in the vein of “Trollhunter”, “Santa’s Slay” & oldschool Steven Spielberg and you get the idea.
The movie’s only about 80 minutes long and extremely entertaining from the first to the last minute, thanks to a superbly written and brilliantly paced script, an interesting plot and Jalmari Helander’s splendid direction.
The acting is great and the chemistry between the actors (especially between Jorma and Onni Tommila, father and son in film and in reality) is wonderful.
All the snowy landscapes look gorgeous, the camera work is pretty fine and we get to hear a wonderfully bombastic soundtrack.
Highlights: Santa’s ingeniously creepy helpers, a few cool jump scares, the flawed but strangely beautiful CGI scenes, the dead reindeers, the 24-door and the absolutely incredible ending.
Forget “Home Alone” and “It’s A Wonderful Life”. From now on, this shall be your new favorite Xmas movie
http://www.horrormoviediary.net
“Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” is a deliciously deceptive (and unexpected) mixture of horror, action/adventure, and dark comedy. If you’ve been a movie buff for a long time, love anti-holiday favorites like “Bad Santa” and “Black Christmas”, but still desire something new to add to your collection of films that follow the Grinch philosophy; then this little Finnish fantasy will more than do the trick. It’s a crafty film; written and directed by Jalmari Helander, who has as much a strong hand with a camera as with a pen. Here, he has created an original, daring vision of holiday horror; and if it’s a crazy, wild, satisfyingly off-kilter ride that you crave, then look no further, because “Rare Exports” just about leaves every other recent anti-holiday feature face-down in the snow.
The basic – but ingenious – concept of the film is that a group of mountain excavators have dug one whole too many; and too deep. They have discovered a giant, frozen Santa Clause; the one you probably didn’t know about; the one who has, until now, existed only in Finnish lore. This Santa doesn’t give you presents; instead, he’s a child killer. And as I mentioned before, he’s very, very big. I’d also add on to that statement that he’s very, very angry – since he probably is – but we never quite see him in time.
A group of reindeer herders are perturbed by the excavations going on in the mountains; prompting them to investigate. A few of the herders have children – and two of them happen to come along for the trip – although they soon discover the true motives behind the excavations. It’s the sort of situation where you desperately want to turn your back to the situation; yet you can’t fight the intrigue that it inspires.
I won’t spoil too much of what follows. This is a delightful treat of a movie; very cinematic in its broad, visionary ideas, but also quite intelligent as well. For one, the premise suggest a giant Santa; one that we never see. But given the presence of the frozen beast, we expect a straight-up comedy. But that isn’t the kind of movie that Helander has set out to make; no, “Rare Exports” plays more like a horror film than anything else. Despite the said premise, it takes itself almost completely serious; although it does have a few moments of satire and humor that make it an easy film to swallow.
Nevertheless, I can’t profile it under any other genre than horror; unless I can get by without profiling the film under one genre at all. It truly is something else; not merely a horror film, not merely a dark fantasy, and not merely a part-time satirical look at Finnish lore. In fact, it’s all of those films; and perhaps even more. There’s heart, a general sense of danger, thrills, and storybook-images of Santa boiling kiddies in giant, black cauldrons. That last thing isn’t going to appeal to everyone – in fact, it might offend a certain group of people – but then again, they probably won’t see this film in the first place.
The way I see it, “Rare Exports” has already vanished into some sort of obscurity. I think it’s our jobs – as the fans (and critics) who appreciated just how unique and entertaining the film was – to change this. This is a terribly overlooked film, and I found it quite fantastic. Given this, I also think it’s well-deserving of a faithful audience, and perhaps in the future, it shall itself a nice little cult. I also tip my hat to Helander; who provides us with a pretty damn good show. I haven’t seen any other films from him – nor do I know if he’s even made any films aside from this one – but either way, I can see him becoming a promising filmmaker somewhere down the road. He gives “Rare Exports” an interesting visual look; and the cinematography is flawless and sometimes even atmospheric.
Look, I’m just getting a little bit tired of standard Christmas movie formula; and “Rare Exports” provided me with the kind of dark, fantastical escapism that I needed and deserved. If you’re anything like me, then it will probably have the same effect on you. Regardless, I smell a new holiday classic in the making; and I’ll make this one a “must” for me when it comes to Christmas movie-watching from now on. I had a really good time watching this flick; and like I said, I think it deserves more attention and recognition for its creativity and masterful tonal shifts. “Rare Exports” is rare indeed; the kind of Christmas present that you open with delight, only to find that inside lies a punching glove on a spring; ready to pounce. But there’s always fun in something like that, isn’t there?
Fun, fun, fun, entertaining, original, what more can you say
Forget your Christmas With the Kranks and prepare yourselves for a real Christmas movie! Rare Exports brings a brilliantly original and fresh idea to the Christmas horror table and manages to bring along a rather gorgeous looking and entertaining yarn about an evil daemonic Santa who’s more interested in killing children than giving them yuletide gifts! (Keep your kids in bed for this one guys!) It follows an engaging storyline from a little boy’s point of view, as well as his father’s and father’s friends. They believe they’ve found Santa in a deer trap and things begin to escalate from there. I didn’t know whether to laugh or feel chilled half the time, but the film manages to balance the two in a healthy way. It’s beautifully shot and has some quite unforgettable and chilling imagery. The production values were bigger than I thought and the finale is surprisingly cinematic and can out-do most American productions! My only gripes are that it wasn’t long enough! I would’ve liked to have seen some more thrills from the finale which felt just too short after such a wonderful build-up. I would’ve also liked to have seen some a more developed storyline and Santa! Don’t get me wrong though. This is a wonderful tale and one with such bizarre originality that you’ll find hard to forget!