The success of his two short films about feral Santa Clauses, Rare Exports Inc. (2003) and The Official Rare Exports Inc. Safety Instructions 2005 (2005), encouraged writer/director Jalmari Helander to expand the idea into a feature which filled in the back story, exposing the truth about who or what we’re really seeing in department stores and shopping malls every December. Rare Exports (the title isn’t explained until the very last scene of the film) opens deceptively, mainly playing as a kids film albeit one with unexpectedly grisly moments – maybe Finnish kids are made of sterner stuff but scenes of reindeer butchery are pretty strong for a film that seems to be pitched so young. In a remote part of Lapland, a British research team digs something out of the ice, watched from a distance by two young boys, Juuso (Ilmari Järvenpää) and Pietari (Onni Tomila). What they’ve found is the original Santa Claus of Finnish legend, a giant horned creature who who whips naughty children at Christmas and boils them alive. Soon Santa’s loyal elves, vicious old feral men, are laying siege to the remote community and start thawing out their master (“they trying to defrost him”)…
A prequel of sorts, it suggests that the jolly old men in red that we’re used to seeing every Christmas are actually Santa’s elves, specially trained by the hastily created company Rare Exports established by the boys’ fathers, and that the original Santa, seen here only encased in a block of ice though what we see resembles Krampus more than our traditional view of Father Christmas, is long gone. The first half is the best, Helander quoting extensively from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and he channels Carpenter throughout, perfectly mimicking his ability to generate a steadily growing sense of dread. There are some nicely macabre touches, particularly the ghastly effigies left behind after the local children have been abducted by Santa’s vicious minions. The second half becomes a rather more prosaic monster movie though a fun one all the same as the remote drilling outpost is besieged by angry elves (actually joulutonttu according to legend). The suspicion that this had one eye on a younger audience is deepened when the day is saved by young Pietari who gets a thrilling ride hanging from a helicopter as the elves mass like Romero zombies at the gates of the compound.
It’s refreshing to see the Finnish version of Santa, Joulupukki or “Christmas Goat” on screen for once and Helander takes some sly digs at the increasing commercialisation and domestication of the figure into the jovial present-dispenser we know today. This isn’t “the Coca Cola version” Pietari cautions early on. The notion that Santa also punishes the naughty still persist almost unnoticed in popular songs (“He’s making a list / And checking it twice / Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice” the lyrics of Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town warns us) but is all but gone from popular legend today. This Santa, a huge, demonic creature with large horns, is less cuddly than we’ve become used to and in the world of Rare Exports one has to be extremely careful around Santa and his minions for fear of doing something worthy of punishment.
Despite the distressing aftermath of a reindeer massacre and some low key old man nudity in the second half, Rare Exports is a good gateway drug for younger audiences looking for a darker alternative to the saccharine offerings they’re usually fobbed off with during the festive season. The fact that it’s the youngest character, well played by Tomila, who works out what’s going on in the first place and gets the heroic, almost self-sacrificing final stand at the climax, makes it perfectly accessible to those children who have seen through their parents’ rather disturbing lies about the jolly fat man who’s coming into their bedroom on Christmas Eve bearing presents and are looking for something a little more cynical.
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