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Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 80
Fresh: 72 | Rotten: 8

Rare Exports is an unexpectedly delightful crossbreed of deadpan comedy and Christmas horror.

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 1

Rare Exports is an unexpectedly delightful crossbreed of deadpan comedy and Christmas horror.

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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 10,567

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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

R, 1 hr. 20 min.

Action & Adventure, Art House & International, Comedy, Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Directed By: Jalmari Helander

In Theaters: Dec 3, 2010 Limited

On DVD: Oct 25, 2011

Box Office:$0.2M

Oscilloscope Pictures

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale Trailer & Photos

More Photos (3)

Cast

Critic Reviews for Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

All Critics (80) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (73) | Rotten (8) | DVD (3)

Conceived with winking humor and a terrific visual style, the pic is a rare treat.

January 5, 2011 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Jay Weissberg

Variety

Top Critic

Santa shows his dark side in this wildly idiosyncratic horror flick from Finnish writer-director Jalmari Helander.

January 5, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Andrea Gronvall

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" is a rather brilliant lump of coal for your stocking hung by the fireside with care.

December 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

The dark days and darker nights of this bleak land of farmers who do their own butchering is an ideal setting for a horror riff on the Christmas myth.

December 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel

| Comment

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

Too crazy? Good luck telling that to the filmmakers inviting you to spend the holidays with the anti-Claus.

December 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

| Comment (1)

Tom Russo

Boston Globe

Top Critic

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale explores the dark side of the Santa Claus myth -- if myth he is -- and finds humor, and horror, lurking there.

December 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

| Comment

Steven Rea

Philadelphia Inquirer

Top Critic

Beautifully shot and always fascinating, Rare Exports succeeds on many levels. But the final payoff just never seems to come.

January 29, 2012 Full Review Source: IGN DVD

| Comment

R. L. Shaffer

IGN DVD

a holiday movie for the horror movie fan

December 17, 2011 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures

| Comment

Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

A wonderfully strange concoction of dry comedy, weird horror, and Christmas-related craziness.

September 5, 2011 Full Review Source: FEARnet

| Comment

Scott Weinberg

FEARnet

If there's any justice in the world, this will be playing on loop future Christmases alongside A Christmas Story.

August 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Projection Booth

| Comment

Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

What's awesome about movies from other countries is that you get to experience strange juxtapositions of elements you might not find in Hollywood movies that get test-marketed until all the jarring bits have been sanded down.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies.com

| Comment

Dave White

Movies.com

Brevity is the soul of wit, and while Helander seems to understand this with his snappy runtime, there is only barely enough new material here to justify a feature production.

February 10, 2011 Full Review Source: What Culture

| Comment (1)

Shaun Munro

What Culture Source: What Culture

Arresting!

January 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Horror.com

| Comment

Staci Layne Wilson

Horror.com Source: Horror.com

A bloody, but oddly entertaining, holiday ho-ho-horror story.

January 7, 2011 Full Review Source: Times-Picayune

| Comment

Mike Scott

Times-Picayune

I love Christmas movies and I have seen quite a few of them, but I can safely say that there's nothing else quite like Rare Exports, an import from Finland.

January 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

A darkly comic throwback to the kiddie horror pics of the '80s, cheeky and just a bit grotesque.

December 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Movies.com

| Comment

Jen Yamato

Movies.com

A half-baked, but at times utterly enthralling, dark fairy tale that eventually abandons its hushed tones and sweeping scope in favor of a grandly silly climax out of left field.

December 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly

| Comment

Justin Strout

Orlando Weekly

Helander executes with black humor, and Tommila brings an endearing combination of vulnerability and moxie to the role.

December 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Moving Pictures Magazine

| Comment

Annlee Ellingson

Moving Pictures Magazine

It's a reminder that beyond the pre-packaged, sanitized shopping-mall experience, dwell pagan beings, wild beasts, and brave children unglued to electronic screens.

December 22, 2010 Full Review Source: East Bay Express

| Comment

Kelly Vance

East Bay Express

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

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Cast: Per Christian Ellefsen, Peeter Jakobi, Tommi Korpela, Jorma Tommila, Jonathan Hutchings, Onni Tommila, Risto Salmi, Rauno Juvonen, Ilmari J�rvenp�� Director: Jalmari HelanderSummary: In the frozen beauty of Finland, local reindeer herders race against the clock to capture an ancient evil: Santa Claus. A single

December 19, 2010

♥˩ƳИИ ƜѲѲƉƧ♥

Super Reviewer

A fun alternative to the regular Christmas faire, The best way to describe Rare Exports is The Thing, as directed by Steven Speilberg, on a low budget, set in Norway, with Santa as the titular character.And it's kind of awesome...until it kind of endorses slavery at the end (or at least "human" trafficking.

February 2, 2012

Ken Stachnik

Super Reviewer

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