Until seeing this trailer, I would have gone on thinking of the phrase “Finnish horror movie about a bunch of archaeologists who dig up a demonic Santa Claus” as purely hypothetical, and the sort of thing only one’s most extremely esoteric, nerdy, and/or subversive friends (or, in other words, me) would say. While on lots of drugs. But no. There is a Finnish horror movie about a bunch of archaeologists who dig up a demonic Santa Claus. It’s called Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale for some reason. And it’s coming out in the U.S. on December 3rd.
The thing about this trailer is that it’s so perfect, and so crazy, and establishes its ludicrous premise with such economy, that it almost makes one not want to see the feature-length version. There is also the question of how it will measure up to that thoughtful meditation on holiday season semiotics and mythology Silent Night, Deadly Night (a popular movie in Finland). Until December 3rd, though, we will have to study this trailer a few hundred more times so that expectations for the finished (Finnish’d?) product are impossibly high.
There’s a movie about a bunch of Finnish archaeologists who dig up a demonic Santa Claus! Oh, the universe is kind.
Danny Bowes is a playwright, filmmaker and blogger. He is also a contributor to nytheatre.com and Premiere.com.
