3 gibbles out of 5

Director: Jalmari Helander

The thing that will catch you out the most about this is that it’s in Finland, and seems to have no problem showing off Finland as being sparse towns and cold weather and men and children in tattered clothes.  This humbleness (whether it’s accurate or not for this part of Finland, I dunno) is probably the best aspect of the film, as it keeps the aims and motivations of the characters simple and understandable.  And believable within the context of a film about a killer santa.

So some young kids, whose fathers hunt reindeer for some Findlandian purpose that provides money, are spying on a construction crew that’s doing demolitions in a nearby mountain.  As we find out that the crew’s benefactor has the mysterious intention of digging up something buried in said mountain, one of the kids (who turns out to be our main character) returns home to spook himself with old books about “the original santa claus,” who seemed to have a penchant for torturing and eating children.

I’ll let you connect the dots about what might be inside the mountain.

It’s a slow buildup to our confrontation with something nefarious, but the scenery is beautiful and clean – even the tattered clothing has a very crisp look to it – and the lead kid’s fascination / fear of santa is fun and creatively explored.  Plus – and whether this is a foreign sensibility or not – we have a single father and son who seem to have a fairly realistic relationship.  The father’s gruff actions would have to be “redeemed” by something heroic in an American flick, but here his brusqueness with his boy is never excused, and yet we get the point that there’s real concern and love there.

Unfortunately, as happens with a lot of slow-burn films, once you turn the corner, there’s no going back.  We get one creepy character captured by the locals around whom rules and stipulations are proposed.  This is fun.  Then we’re told “what’s really going on” and the rules and stipulations seem to disappear in favor of a low-budget attempt at a big-budget ending.  It’s managed well enough, but the change in pacing makes the sparseness at the beginning seem amateur instead of purposefully paced.

Still, I enjoyed Rare Exports, and the coda felt like an actual wrap-up instead of just filler.  Nothing sticks out as notable – even a premise that could’ve been milked for a million sequels feels like a cool idea that just brushes the events on screen – but by the same fair token, the film doesn’t really promise much, and so it’s average delivery seems to fit just right.  A good beginner’s horror / foreign flick.

I, too, enjoy caging religious icons.

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