10 Alternative Christmas Movies
7. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Imagine the Coen brothers remaking The Thing and you’ve got Rare Exports, Finnish writer/director Jalmari Helander’s bid to turn Santa Claus into a horror icon.
Following on from the shorts Rare Exports Inc and The Official Rare Exports Inc, where wild Santas are captured by hunters and trained to be child-friendly bearers of seasonal gifts, Helander shows us how it all began in this feature length prequel.
When a villager finds several local reindeer torn to pieces, he resolves to find the perpetrator and soon captures a snarling, bearded old man. Could this be connected to a local archaeological dig where a creature was discovered trapped in ice? It is, and it’s not long before the old man’s “little helpers” turn up to free him and assist him in wreaking havoc.
Dismissing the modern Santa as a commercialized myth, Rare Exports digs deep into Finnish folklore and returns the character to his roots as a figure more interested in punishing the naughty than rewarding the good. Expect lashings of violence and dark fun in the style of Gremlins.