It’s hard to believe it’s been an entire decade since the release of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010). It’s one of those Christmas movies you sneak into a list when someone says they’ve seen all the latest Hallmark Christmas movies, “Do you have any Suggestions?” Krampus (2015) starring Toni Collette might be too obvious. You can try to sneak that into your Aunt Hildy’s holiday viewing list, but Rare Exports does a better job at hiding itself on the shelf next to your elf. Tell them it’s a foreign film; something with subtitles from Finland, “From the land of the original Santa Claus.” You have an out if you get an earful.
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Saint Nick’s little helpers will won’t bother lending an ear. They’ll literally take it in their grimy mouths and bite it off. It all starts with a Hollywood hook despite originating on the opposite side of the world. The actors in the intro speak English for the benefit of English speakers. That’ll give you the hook. When you’re on the line, there’s not a lot outside of Finnish and Russian. You’ll be reading most of the movie, but it’s helpful because even the English is difficult to understand. On the border of Finland and Russia is a cold town of livestock farmers, butchers, and mechanics. Women and girls are suspiciously absent in the town and the film, yet somehow it’s never addressed. Little Pietari (Onni Tommila) and Juuso (Ilmari Järvenpää) surely came from somewhere, but mothers and sisters don’t seem to exist. Again, not addressed, so we get past it. There is an Elsa on a list of children. Luckily, she hasn’t been crossed off yet.
You see, Pietari’s father, Rauno (Jorma Tommila), has caught a strange man in his illegal wolf trap. He thinks its a Russian or American from the mining business across the border. Their explosions have been driving wolves into their reindeer territory, costing them money. Naturally, you hold the guy for ransom. But Pietari has different information. He found a sack with a straw doll inside, so he thinks his dad has trapped Santa Claus. He’s just a kid, so he doesn’t know the doll was meant to be his horrifying replacement meant for his father to find. This Santa isn’t the Santa from the mall or the Santa from the Rankin/Bass specials. He has elves doing his dirty work (no real difference there), and he’s a bit Krampus-esque.
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We owe a debt of gratitude to Tim Burton for The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). He made the fourth quarter connection that bound the Halloween season to the Christmas Season. Yes, there’s Black Christmas (1974), and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) and its sequels, but they only address horror for the time. With the connection between the holidays has been extended all the way to the beginning of October, when non-horror-watching muggles seek out scares. The oft laughed at phenomenon of non-horror fans only watching horror in a thirty-one day window has grown. Christmas horror didn’t really catch on for non-horror fans at that point. It was still fringe, and a brave investment for producers. Burton made it safe and trendy. He sold proverbial candy cigarettes to children, and inadvertently raised a generation that appreciates horror more than ever. The Hot Topic-ification of Christmas has led to green lighting of movies that could have just as likely been a fake trailer in a Quentin Tarantino movie just a decade ago. Christmas horror has grown quite a bit since Jack and Sally. Kids who grew up on the stop motion classic are much more open to honoring Ministry’s “Every Day is Halloween” credo. Horror fans want their blood, monsters, and slashers year round. Why not allow a seasonal theme categorize when to watch? Now that a new trend is surfacing the content follows.
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There have been a handful of Christmas themed horror movies in the last thirty years, but the sub-genre has grown exponentially in the last decade. Since Rare Exports, we have enjoyed an ongoing franchise of Krampus and low budget knock-offs, A Christmas Horror Story (2015), Silent Night (2012), Red Christmas (2016), All Through the House (2015), and so many others. I now realize the independent comic I wrote and drew highlighting an axe wielding Santa on a murderous rampage would have been much better received if I hadn’t published it in the early nineties. Interestingly, as the commercialization of Christmas has come full circle, that point is directly addressed in Rare Exports when they end up selling elves as authentic Santas. Just trying to make a buck.
Uff da! There are quite a few movies to choose from during the holiday season now. You’ve got the classics, the catalysts, and now you have the shrapnel from an explosion. If you choose a few, or even one to be an annual view, Rare Exports is the right choice. You’ll get a little more out of it with each viewing, and it really puts you in the spirit. Red is the color of Christmas, after all.
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