It takes a lot of courage – and even more skill – to unsettle beloved myths, presenting them as unique and daring works. We tend to gravitate towards what we find familiar, and it can therefore be tricky to embrace those which attempt to redefine what particular concepts mean. This is the foundation on which Jalmari Helander (in his feature-length directorial debut) builds Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (Finnish: Joulupukki), his deliriously funny and oddly moving holiday classic in which he blends comedy, psychological drama and body horror into a single daring work that challenges our perception on several themes, particularly those relating to Christmas celebrations, which he had previously explored in two short films that preceded this film, and served as the springboard for many of the film’s most challenging and unconventional ideas. Set in Lapland, the film follows Pietari Kontio, a young boy who still believes in the magic of Christmas, seemingly the only member of his very remote community – his best friend has decided to embrace cynicism, while his single father is far more focused on his work as a reindeer farmer than he is on consolidating his son’s peculiar beliefs. However, after a strange turn of events, the father and son begin to realise that there is something far more sinister afoot, especially when the contractors hired to work on a nearby plot of land mysteriously disappear without a trace, leaving behind clues that suggest there is far more to this incident than anyone initially realises. An offbeat and magnificently deranged subversion of traditional Christmas classics, which tend to follow a very particular rubric, all of which the director aims to deconstruct with this film, a wildly strange and undeniably compelling comedy that is relentless in how it sets out to portray classical mythology, using it as the foundation for one of the most off-kilter, daring Christmas films of the 21st century, and one that is quite correctly being hailed as the definition of a cult classic.

Christmas is one of those subjects that is simply impossible to escape, even in cultures where it isn’t viewed as a religious celebration, but rather a cultural event that is worth acknowledging, regardless of whether the actual “reason for the season” factors into the conversation at all.  Unfortunately, when you have everyone from the sacred to the secular having their own opinion on the holiday, it can feel awfully over-saturated and commonplace, which can be frustrating for those who are seeking something different. It’s not correct to position Rare Exports as some overly original work – it’s not even the first film to look at Christmas through the lens of horror – but we also can’t avoid acknowledging some of its more brilliant elements, which come about in what it chooses to explore. The origins of the myth of Santa Claus are as murky as they are fascinating, and we’ve often tried to cobble together the paltry historical information we have to create a more thorough portrait of this legend and how it evolved. There’s something about setting a film in Lapland – popularly cited as being the home of Santa Claus in many early versions of the myth (likely from before we knew of the existence of the North Pole) – that adds layers of nuance, which is precisely where Helander finds the material that drives this film forward. The core of the story revolves around a young boy who is confronted with the realisation that the cuddly, affectionate being that delivers gifts to those who have been good is far less pleasant than he had been led to believe. Unhinging any kind of mythology can be tricky, but when done well (and with the appropriate commitment to making it as compelling as possible), it can be truly exceptional, which is where we find this film thriving, even when it does tend to lose momentum towards the end, leading to some more tenuous attempts to tie the various thematic threads together. It’s certainly very entertaining, even at its most conventional, since the subject matter itself is certainly strong enough for the film to stand on its own for the most part.

One of the many reasons we can appreciate Rare Exports is because of its approach to genre. Helander is not taking the usual route of building a Christmas film that is mostly comedic, with a few additions of elements taken from a variety of genres. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what this film is aiming to convey, but we do find that it becomes increasingly easier to appreciate some of its wild swings when we don’t attempt to rationalise absolutely every choice. Instead, this is the kind of film that rewards anyone who can simply surrender to the madness that encompasses all 82 minutes of this film, which intends to take the viewer on a hilarious and irreverent ride through this story, which intends to be a wildly entertaining reconfiguration of the classic Christmas comedy, which has now been mangled into this offbeat work that is as funny as it is outright terrifying. It is difficult to make a figure like Santa Claus seem terrifying (and the revelation of what he actually looks like is one of the most harrowing moments in this film), but through embracing what is essentially a humorous redefining of a classical folktale, underlining its more violent and less-pleasant elements (since even the history of this supposedly gentle, benevelont figure is not without its darker moments that have been all but erased as the centuries have passed), which proves to be fertile ground for the director to examine the myth and how it is perceived. Blending genres in such a manner can be tricky, since it entails not only being both funny and horrifying, but often doing both in tandem, which is not an easy accomplishment, but one that Helander is more than happy to use as the foundation for what is essentially a very simple story that doesn’t need to announce itself as some overly ambitious achievement, since everything is communicated through the work itself.

As we’ve seen from his other work (especially the well-received Sisu and its sequel, both of which have immediately positioned the director as one of the most unique voices to come out of his native Finland), Helander is very much committed to the craft that comes with delivering a well-constructed, meaningful genre film that is not only adherent to the principles of the medium, but also able to be thoroughly entertaining on a technical level. It was produced on a slightly smaller budget, but we would never be able to tell, based on how Helander proves to be exceptionally resourceful, compensating for any shortcomings with pure gumption, which is the primary propellant for this entire film. The core of Rare Exports is that it is essentially a film that exists at the perfect intersection between comedy, horror, fantasy and action. The humour is communicated through the writing, which oscillates between witty wordplay and slapstick comedy, to incredible effect. However, the others are mainly done through the visual approach, and considering it is a smaller film, there is a lot that needs to be done to ensure that it can stand alongside the many films that can be seen as its inspiration. Helander makes the most of every moment, developing the film to be an effortlessly entertaining action-packed comedy that delivers on every ounce of its promise. There’s something so wonderfully mystifying about how the film functions, and a lot of this is due to the work by the actors – none of them are necessarily professionals, but they do their best to take on these more peculiar characters with such incredible dedication that we can’t begrudge some of their more inexperienced line readings (such as those from the young protagonist), since everything else around them seems far more compelling. It’s a well-crafted work, and a lot of its charm is drawn from its more do-it-yourself aesthetic, which makes it feel so much more enduring as a future classic.

As an action film, a family comedy and a Christmas film, Rare Exports is the very definition of unorthodox – and there is something to be said about a film that may not be great, but at the very least has the ambition and gall to do something different. There’s value in taking a wild swing from time to time, and this film is the perfect encapsulation of all of these ideas. It may not be the most intelligent film, but it is also far from being a bundle of mindlessly lowbrow attempts at humour and horror – instead, it finds value in taking a very simple premise and turning it into something truly engaging, even when it can sometimes feel limited. Perhaps its best-described as an acquired taste – not everyone finds the idea of an overly-violent comedic horror film in which Santa Claus is presented as an enormous prehistoric horned monster to be a particularly pleasant affair for the holiday season, but to its credit, Rare Exports is not made for those audiences, but rather those of us who crave something unconventional and daring, even if it may not be the definition of challenging art. From a purely entertaining perspective, this film is a triumph – it’s very short, and moves at a rapid pace, which means that it never feels like it is overstaying its welcome. The filmmaking is intensely compelling and deeply moving, having a sincerity and charm that we cannot help but find to be absolutely enthralling. Helander is a fascinating filmmaker, and while he doesn’t always follow the rules, there is value in his decision to challenge and provoke, which is precisely why we can appreciate Rare Exports as one of the most delightfully deranged Christmas films of the past few decades, and one of the most purely entertaining attempts to redefine the concept of the holiday film as something that can take a risk and still be rewarded when done properly.