Written and Directed by Jalmari Helander
Starring Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila, Per Christian Ellefsen, Tommi Korpela, Rauno Juvonen, Ilmari Jarvenpaa, Peeter Jakobi, Jonathan Hutchings and Risto Salmi
Finland/Norway/France/Sweden
I remember when this Christmas-themed horror movie was playing just down the street at the Hollywood theater. At the time I thought, “I get it. Edgy Christmas horror movie, Santa’s evil.” And, I wrote it off. Since then, the Hollywood keeps bringing it back (almost) every Christmas, so I started to think maybe there was something there, after all. So, I’m glad I finally got around to watch it – even if it’s Halloween, not Christmas.
This is the tale of a little kid living in Finland whose father makes his living running a reindeer slaughterhouse. A lot of people in the small community apparently rely on a good reindeer hunting season to survive, and as the movie starts we find that the reindeer have mysteriously been killed before they were able to be rounded up. There’s suspicion a mysterious company conducting some sort of archaeological or geological dig on top of a nearby ominous mountain might have something to do with this.
I’m getting too into the plot here – the point is that the little kid begins to suspect Santa is not the benevolent guy Coca-Cola would have you think, but is actually more like his evil monstrous counterparts from older folktales, who wants to come and punish children, or take them away. He becomes convinced the digging on the mountain has disturbed Santa in some way, and his suspicions seem to be coming true when a naked old man with a white beard is found in one of his family’s wolf traps.
From here, the movie takes many surprising turns – I figured at this point, this is it – this creepy old man they’ve caught is Santa, he’s going to go on a killing rampage, and the kid will eventually stop him. But, it’s not as simple as that, and there are a few surprises before the somewhat convoluted ending.
The main thing about this movie pleasantly surprised me was that it looks like a million bucks. I figured this would be a low budget affair but it looks like a big box office movie, with great cinematography, lighting, special effects – it takes place on a big scale, making everything seem a little more grand and important than I thought it would be. At times, it feels like an early Spielberg movie – there are scares, but there’s also plenty of childlike wonder and adventure. It’s not quite the cynical horror film I assumed it would be, although the ending “joke” kinda goes that direction at the last minute.
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