Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

Like a twisted day-dream from a boy more enamored by horror and action films than sentimental trite, comes this creepy, funny and completely zany Christmas film from Finland.  Santa is not a jolly fat man in a red suit, that's a lie, the original was an evil children torturing demon.  Yet now a team of archaeologists have broken into his burial site and only three reindeer handlers and a young boy, our hero, can stop Santa's return  At its heart the movie does have a touchy-feelie plot line too, about a son and father needing to come together, it's just full of other Testosterone trimmings like guns, explosions and zombies.  I loved it!  What more can you ask for on Christmas Eve?  Whenever I find these kind of nontraditional Christmas stories this fun and entertaining, I want to shout it out to the world.  Sure if you get really nit picky there are some pacing problems in the beginning and some of the characters could have been more developed but none of that matters.  This one is a keeper.  Grade: B+