Gory Christmas

If your Christmas sensibilities trend to the dark side, have I got the movie for you. Yesterday, I fired up Netflix streaming to watch Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. This 2010 movie from Finland follows a young boy who stumbles onto a strange excavation being undertaken by an American on a nearby mountain -- the real Santa Claus has been discovered, buried deep in the ice for ages. But said real Santa Claus is not the "Coca-Cola version" of Santa we all celebrate today, but rather a horrifying devourer of misbehaving children deliberately buried long ago, and now poised to unleash a new horror on Earth.

The truth is, that intriguing premise is probably the best thing about the film. But even in its sometimes flawed execution, there's a lot to like about it. Director Jalmari Helander has a firm command of suspenseful horror. The first half of the film builds a strong sense of creeping dread, and the sequences in which a trio of reindeer hunters try to figure out what to do with the strange old man they've captured are brilliantly executed.

But then things start to go comic and broad. A rather horrifying injury is shrugged off in an almost slapstick way. And then the young boy at the center of the film suddenly transforms into a strange sort of 1980s action hero, spouting off cheesy one-liners as he orders everyone around. This too is somewhat enjoyable on a certain level -- probably the same level that makes a number of people out there cite Die Hard as one of their favorite Christmas movies. But it's a rather jarring shift in tone that I didn't necessarily welcome after the effective horror of the movie's first half.

But turn or no turn, the movie is still a fair amount of sick fun. I give it a B-. Obviously, this isn't a movie for everyone. But I know of enough twisted people who read my blog that I figured I'd better get a recommendation in before Christmas Day. I suspect a few of you out there will want to give it a shot.