Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Rare Exports is an unexpectedly delightful crossbreed of deadpan comedy and Christmas horror.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale Videos & Photos
Movie Info
It's the eve of Christmas in northern Finland, and an 'archeological' dig has just unearthed the real Santa Claus. But this particular Santa isn't the one you want coming to town. When the local children begin mysteriously disappearing, young Pietari and his father Rauno, a reindeer hunter by trade, capture the mythological being and attempt to sell Santa to the misguided leader of the multinational corporation sponsoring the dig. Santa's elves, however, will stop at nothing to free their … More
| Rating: | R (for some nudity and language) |
| Genre: | Action & Adventure, Art House & International, Comedy, Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy |
| Directed By: | Jalmari Helander |
| Written By: | Petri Jokiranta, Jalmari Helander |
| In Theaters: | Dec 3, 2010 Limited |
| On DVD: | Oct 25, 2011 |
| Box Office: | $0.2M |
| Runtime: |
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Cast
as Pietari
as Rauno
as Juuso
as Santa
as Riley
as Amimo
as Piiparinen
as Greene
as Sheriff
as Pietari
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LoginCritic Reviews for Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
All Critics (95) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (11) | DVD (3)
Rare Exports also twists the season's staples with a morbidly merry, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.
For anyone who can look a little askance at the monster that contemporary Christmas has become, this artfully made Finnish tale is -- I kid you not -- a real treat.
The end gets a little silly, but the building tension of the first two acts allows for some deliciously creepy moments and a true feeling of dread: the sense of something very old, and very hungry, shuffling toward you in the Yuletide dark.
[A] deliciously loopy oddball of a film.
A James Bond movie, fairy tale and potentially a full blown horror story rolled into one, if you enjoyed the original Swedish vampire thriller Let The Right One In, you'll find much to admire here.
I'm at a loss for words for how cool this is. It's a Killer Santa. Killer Santa, people. It's a great concept.
Audience Reviews for Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
This Finnish Christmas tale looks better than most other films from Europe. Arthouse lovers could complain that it got Hollywoodized too much, but the wonderfully wacky story of "the original" Santa tale should please everyone with a sense for unusual horror. The mix of traditional folklore, family story and monster film just works really great together. Especially the ending is so clever you can't help but hope this is a true story.
Super Reviewer
Interesting movie. Rather strange, if you ask me. I'm not sure I get why so many people seemed to love it. This was an unanimated Tim Burton kind of Christmas movie. My biggest disappointment with the film is what we don't get to see. I didn't understand why we got to see a bunch of less than adorable naked elderly elves, but we couldn't get a single shot of Santa? It was also confusing that the first hour of the story is for older kids or adults, and then once the young boy starts calling the shots, it's reverses back to a kid's film. Not much magical, or mystical, about this particular fairytale. Dark, but weird...
Super Reviewer
Cast: Per Christian Ellefsen, Peeter Jakobi, Tommi Korpela, Jorma Tommila, Jonathan Hutchings, Onni Tommila, Risto Salmi, Rauno Juvonen, Ilmari Järvenpää
Director: Jalmari Helander
Summary: In the frozen beauty of Finland, local reindeer herders race against the clock to capture an ancient evil: Santa Claus. A single dad and his son are caught up in the chaos as scientists dig for artifacts. What they find endangers the entire village.
My Thoughts: "I really liked the concept of this movie. I thought it was a brilliant idea... Lets make Santa a child murdering freak of nature and have old naked men as the elves. Crazy right?! I wouldn't call the movie scary, even if I think kids would freak out, but considering the elves (as I mentioned above, they are old naked men), I'm pretty sure no parent is going to allow their young ones to watch this.. Well unless they are a bit twisted. It's a rare dark Christmas treat. Someone previously wrote that it felt like an 80's film, and I couldn't agree more. Which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Hope more see it. Enjoy!"
Super Reviewer
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