215) Barbarian (2022)

"You cannot get it upset."

Director
Zach Cregger

Cast
Georgina Campbell - Tess
Bill Skarsgård - Keith
Justin Long - AJ
Matthew Patrick Davis - "The Mother"
Richard Brake - Frank

As I've mentioned before on this platform, horror movies are often a reflection of society's deepest fears whether those collective fears surround European enemies during World War II, the possibility of hostile invasive aliens from outer space, or cultural shifts and counter cultures. There's a lot. When it comes to horror movies of the last five to ten years, they have a lot of themes centered on racial issues, delusions about how terrible America is, and sexual abuse amidst a sexually deviant society. The latter is seemingly the theme to the 2022 horror movie "Barbarian" starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long. 

The movie opens as Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) pulls up at night to an Airbnb in a low-income neighborhood. 

Much to her chagrin, the homeowners double-booked the Airbnb. When she gets there, it's already occupied by a young guy named Keith (Bill Skarsgård). He's just as put out as she is, but he's certainly patient about the mishap. 

As they can't get a hold of the homeowner, Keith and Tess stay up for a while and talk before deciding that she'll sleep in the lockable bedroom while he takes the sofa. She has to get to a job interview the next morning, so she needs sleep. 

During the night, Tess wakes up to find her bedroom door open though she closed and locked it before turning in. 

Startled, she wakes Keith up to see if he opened her door. Irritated, he insists he didn't open the door. 

The next day, Tess heads to her job interview. After the interview, the interviewer asks where she's staying. Tess tells her the neighborhood, which she noticed leaving that morning is in nearly complete decay except for the house she's staying in. The interviewer advises Tess that the neighborhood isn't a place she should be staying, and suggests she locate another place to stay for her own safety. Of course, Tess thinks she'll be o.k. 

When Tess returns to the house, a homeless man chases her inside yelling for her not to go in. 

Tess manages to get in the house before he can catch up. Since Keith isn't home, she starts exploring the house and heads to the basement. 

However, the basement door shuts on its own, locking her down there. 

In the basement she finds a secret door into a dark corridor with a room at the other end that has nothing in it but a spring bed and a video camera. That's certainly disturbing. 

Georgina Campbell as 'Tess' in 'Barbarian.'

Keith returns back to the house and opens the door to let Tess out of the basement. 

She tells him about what she found down there, and he explores this secret space on his own...and doesn't come back. 

Tess goes into the secret area to look for Keith but he's not in there. She finds another secret door at the other end of the short corridor next to the room with the bed and camera. Behind that door are steps leading to a dark and dank subterranean maze of rooms. 

Tess musters up courage to go down those steps to the underground. She's not prepared for the evil that lingers down there, which emerge late at night to roam the abandoned neighborhood. 

Tess finds Keith just before he's murdered by a deformed woman who's living down there. 

Meanwhile, the homeowner, a TV actor named A.J. (Justin Long), is accused of raping a co-star. His legal costs are more than he can afford. So, he's pressured to sell his assets, including the house, in order to pay the increasing legal fees. 

He heads to the house to check it out before putting it up for sale. 

A.J. has no idea Keith and Tess, or anyone for that matter, has been staying there. He seemingly doesn't know it was being used as an Airbnb. He finds their belongings in the house and thinks squatters have been living in the home. 

After spending a night, he finds the tunnels the next day and is taken by this deformed woman who attacks him before putting him into a hole where he finds Tess. This monstrous woman tries to act like a mother by treating A.J. like an infant in the most disturbing way possible. The more he tries to escape, the angrier she gets. 

The movie cuts back to the original homeowner named Frank (Richard Brake) who lived alone in the house back in the 1980s. The neighborhood was much more vibrant and inhabited at the time. Little do the neighbors know that Frank has been abducting women. The aftermath of his terrible crimes dwell beneath the house. 

After watching this movie, one question remains unanswered. Who opened the house as an Airbnb? And why? 

Matthew Patrick as 'The Mother.'

Anyways, the movie is such a gag inducing experience. I hated thinking about this movie days after I watched this. All the worst scenes made me sick, especially during my lunch breaks. 

It's a lot of uncomfortable scenes and grotesqueries in order to preach a theme of sexual abuse and the trauma it causes that never goes away. Such a twisted and consuming sin like sexual abuse leaves scars even after those involved are gone. 

I do appreciate the premise that public sin corrupts both the culprit and society in general. That moral is seen in the character being pulled into the sludge of Frank's crimes, and the decay of the neighborhood that went from a nice vibrant place to raise a family, to a crumbling abandoned "wrong side of the tracks" kind of neighborhood. 

Regardless, the movie feels pretentious. It's as though it's proud of itself for being "daring" enough to touch on a subject that's been preached to death by the blatant unconscionable hypocrites of Hollywood who submerge themselves to begin with in promiscuous behavior.  

The suspense begins as soon as the movie starts. The story pulls the audience in, wanting to see what'll happen. It's unpredictable. I thought it was going to go one way, and it went a completely different direction. It's at a medium level when it comes to being scary. Or I've just watched too many horror movies. It's probably a mix of both. 

"Barbarian" has an uncomfortable storyline held together by stomach churning images. That's what it relies on most after its message about sexual abuse and the lasting scars such abuse leaves behind. 

It's a disgusting modern creature feature with something to talk about. It did pull me in only to leave me wishing I hadn't watched it. Even writing this, I don't want to think about the movie. It just upsets my stomach. 

214) The Haunted Palace (1963)

"One becomes accustomed to the darkness here." 

Director

Roger Corman 

Cast
Vincent Price - Joseph Curwen / Charles Dexter Ward
Debra Paget -Anne Ward
Cathie Merchant - Hester Tillinghast
Frank Maxwell - Priam Willet / Dr. Marinus Willet
Lon Chaney Jr. - Simon Orne

Milton Parsons - Jabez Hutchinson

Roger Corman's movie, "The Haunted Palace," is his sixth movie loosely based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. This one is a sinister turn from Corman's previous off-the-wall Poe movie, "The Raven." 

As Frankenstein's monster himself, Boris Karloff, shows up in "The Raven," as does Peter Lorre, this time, Lon Chaney, Jr., famous for playing the Wolfman in the Universal Wolfman movies, stars in "The Haunted Palace."

As expected, Vincent Price returns in the lead role to carry this picture just as he has with the other Poe movies except for "The Premature Burial" where he's replaced by Ray Milland for the lead role. 

In this movie, strange things are afoot at the big house on the outskirts of Arkham, Massachusetts back in 1765. 

Residents know something's not right at the house. In fact, they all think that Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price), the master of the house, is a sorcerer or warlock. 

A young girl wanders up to the house, led in trance by Joseph and his mistress, Hester (Cathie Merchant). 

The couple take the girl down into the house's dungeon - all the big houses in Corman's Poe flicks have a dungeon. Anyways, she's forced to take part in some weird ceremonies and rituals. 

During these rituals, an evil entity is summoned and rises from a pit in the dungeon to possess this girl. 

Afterwards, some of the folks in town see this girl wander from the house clearly in a strange daze. They think she's cursed or under some kind of enchantment. 

So, they all march up to the house, grab Curwen, and take him to be burned alive. 

Just before he goes up in flames, Curwen curses the entire town and its inhabitants along with their descendants. 

Vincent Price in "The Haunted Palace."

The story jumps 110 years after these shenanigans. Curwen's great-great-grandson, Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price, again) has inherited the estate. So, he and his wife Anne (Debra Paget) move to Arkham to take over the house. 

However, the townspeople don't welcome them so warmly. 

They blame Charles's ancestor and his curse for all the locals suffering from deformities and other afflictions. It's all Joseph's fault as far as they're concerned. 

Charles and Anne are disturbed by all the disdain hurled at them that they consider leaving. 

However, the house's caretaker, Simon (Lon Chaney, Jr.) convinces the couple to forget about the crazy townspeople and all their personal issues, and to stick around. 

One thing that completely astounds Charles is the amazing and practically identical resemblance he has to his great-great grandfather, Joseph. His portrait hangs above a fireplace. He's taken by this portrait so much that he becomes obsessed with it. It's as though the portrait of his great-great-grandfather begins to possess Charles.
He and Anne meet a local doctor named Marinus Willet (Frank Maxwell) who catches them up to speed about Joseph and why everyone in town hates them so much. 

To add fuel to the fire, Marinus introduces them to the Necronomicon - the book of black magic. He tells Charles and Anne that the book belonged to Joseph, which he used to summon some nasty evil spirits, two in particular named Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth. 

Joseph's diabolic plan was to conjure up these evil spirits to, uhhh... hook up with women and then create a race of superhumans. This is what led to all the deformed towns folk. 

Meanwhile, Charles eventually falls under the complete control of Joseph's painting. In fact, he's completely possessed by Joseph's spirit and begins conducting the same rituals Joseph did over 100 years ago. 

Corman brings his Poe line-up to a much darker and more serious tone with "The Haunted Palace." The story has an eviler sting to it. Eviler - that is a word, I believe. 

The story is based partly on the poem of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe, and partly on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by H. P. Lovecraft. The
Lovecraftian elements are clearly seen in the presence of the Necronomicon and the inclusion of Yog-Sothoth and obviously Cthulhu.

Price's performance here is the best yet. Don't get me wrong, being a fan of Vincent Price, I haven't yet seen a performance of his I didn't like. But here, he brings such an unsettling tone that fits brilliantly well. Price seems to take each role of his seriously and meticulously puts details and specific tones into each of them. That's especially true here. 

If I had to pick a favorite Vincent Price role among these Poe movies, I'd think, thus far, this is it. He's playing dual roles and has the task to meld them together. 

Seeing Lon Chaney, Jr., is certainly a treat. I'm telling you, the casting choices within these last couple of movies is nothing short of classic. For me, being a fan of Universal monsters, it's a treat. This is the kind of stuff I geek out on. 

I'm loving Roger Corman's low budget but grand Poe movies, and "The Haunted Palace" certainly hits the spot.  

The movie has a generous and very welcomed portion of unsettling images that are off-putting, especially the deformed towns folk, some of whom have bare skin instead of eyes. In true Corman form, this Gothic film has an impressive set and showcases Corman's masterful talent in making a grandiose film despite a small budget. 

The age of the movie adds to the welcomed creepy factor acting like real cobwebs left untouched in a haunted house attraction. 

This movie is a return to something dark, in true Poe and Lovecraft fashion, and is more serious in tone than the previous film before it. 

Also. in true Corman/Poe fashion, the story ends with a large gothic looking home going up in flames. It's the signature on a priceless art piece. 

213) Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992)

"You said it was over!" 

Director
Anthony Hickox

Cast
Zach Galligan - Mark Loftmore
Monika Schnarre - Sarah Brightman
Martin Kemp - Baron Von Frankenstein
Bruce Campbell - John Loftmore
Michael Des Barres - George

Alexander Godunov - Scarabis
Jim Metzler - Roger
Billy Kane - Nigel
Joe Baker - The Peasant
John Ireland - King Arthur
Patrick Macnee - Sir Wilfred
David Carradine - The Beggar

Do you remember when I reviewed the 1988 horror flick "Waxwork" back in 2021? Of course you do!

Well, now I've checked out its 1992 sequel, "Waxwork II: Lost in Time." 

Like the first movie, it's also a horror fantasy comedy, although the comedy aspect is a little less subtle than the first. And also like the first, Zach Galligan and Patrick Macnee return to their respective roles. In fact, they're the only cast from part one to come back. 
Monika Schnarre takes on the role of Sarah in this sequel, played by Deborah Foreman in the first movie. Also, unlike part one, there are no wax figures in this movie. 

Part two starts off where part one ends. Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan) and his girlfriend, Sarah (played this time by Monika Schnarre) leave the burning wax museum. They climb into a taxi unaware that a severed hand has crawled out of the zombie wax scene and is following them. It crawls on the cab and hitches a ride back to Sarah's house where she lives with her abusive and vulgar stepfather (George 'Buck' Flower). 

The hand strangles her stepfather and then smashes his head with a hammer. Of course, Sarah is accused of her stepdad's murder, and quickly finds herself on trial for murder. 

She obviously claims innocence and tells the jury all about the wax museum. They obviously think she sounds insane...and guilty. 

Zach Galligan and Monika Schnarre in "Waxwork II: Lost in Time.

Mark comes to her defense and disrupts the trial shouting that she's telling the truth. 

Right after her court appearance, the two head to Sir Wilfred's house. Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee) died in the first movie after losing his head at the claws of a werewolf. Though Wilfred is dead, he left a film for Mark detailing the adventures that he and David (Mark's grandfather) had taken. 

He also discusses the variety of strange, mystical, and mysteriously powerful artifacts they collected during their trips. 

Among these objects, Wilfred notes one in particular called Solomon's Locket. It's a small trinket that looks like a compass. As Wilfred explains, it's a device by which good angels and fallen angels use to pass to other universes called the Kartagra. 

This is where eternal battles of good against evil take place. And both victories or defeats are somehow reflected in our world in the form of either peace or natural disasters. 

And these various universes are manifested in multiple movie stories we're familiar with - "Frankenstein," "Dracula," "Alien," "Godzilla," and even "Dawn of the Dead." That's weird!

They've kept these treasures in a secret room which Mark manages to open through a rigged chess piece on a chess board that Wilfred left set up.

When Mark and Sarah find Solomon's Locket, they start jumping from movie story to movie story. And just like what happened to them in "Waxwork" when they jump into each wax scene, they become a character in that story. They're also forced to survive each story they fall into as they struggle to find evidence to prove Sarah's innocence and get back to the normal world. 

This certainly isn't a scary movie, or maybe I'm completely desensitized by this point. Of course, I'm not. And it's not a scary movie. It's more grotesque humor. 

It barely passes as entertaining, but everything else is underwhelming.

Zach Galligan is an actor who truly seems passionate about actomg. Just listening to him in movie commentaries, particularly about his role in "Gremlins" and "Gremlins II," and watching him act, he never seems to half-ass his performances. There's a lot of effort and enthusiasm on Galligan's part. This is certainly true about his performance in this sequel.  

Bruce Campbell cameos as John Loftmore in a black and white scene.

"Waxwork II" relies nearly almost on the multiple references to the other movies that the story packs itself with - "Friday the 13th," "Dracula," "Frankenstein," "Psycho," "Godzilla," "Alien," "The Haunting," "Dawn of the Dead." I think there's more. 

Bruce Campbell has a small role in this movie. In one scene, his character makes a nod to his "Evil Dead" movies. Why not? 

David Carradine also has a cameo as a beggar. And Drew Barrymore shows up in a brief scene. 

Each of the movie references soon begins to feel like one parody after another. That's really the only entertaining factor. 

Somewhere in the middle of the story, I forgot what the movie was about. I forgot what Mark and Sarah were trying to do. It all felt like one large satirical throwback to all these other movies. 

By the end, it all came across as dull and repetitive. Yep...dull and repetitive. Dull here. Repetitive there. 

I remember the comedy in the first "Waxwork" being lousy. I think it's a little less lousy in this movie, as I did chuckle a couple times. Like I mentioned in my "Waxwork" review, the first movie felt both rushed through, and loose at the seams. 

In "Waxwork II: Lost in Time" it seems the writers decided to take it slow. Maybe, too slow. It's still loose at the seams. 

There's one scene at a royal feast in the presence of King Arthur (John Ireland) which feels like a bad 90s music video.

This movie does carry some appeal but relies more on its gimmicky tone rather than its workable story. Basically, it's looking in the wrong direction. 

Of course, it's set up for a sequel which, I don't think ever happened. Maybe it's better that way.  

212) Crawlspace (1972)

"He existed as an issue between us, and for all intents and purposes, though we had managed to get him out of the crawl, he was still very much present in the house." - Herbert Lieberman.

Director
John Newland
Buzz Kulik

Cast
Tom Happer - Richard Roy Atlee
Arthur Kennedy - Albert Graves
Teresa Wright - Alice Graves
Eugene Roche - Sheriff Emil Birge
Matthew Cowles - Dave Freeman
Dan Morgan - Dr. Harlow
Roger Serbagi - Davalos
Louise Campbell - Miz Gerard
Fleet Emerson - Wheeler

A couple of months ago, my family and I moved from "the Little Apple" in Kansas up to a small town that boasts being the "Irish Capital of Nebraska." Among the action-packed adventures we've had up here, a huge book sale was actually one of the more entertaining excursions we've taken. At my age, it doesn't take much to amuse me. 

Evidently, the current owners of a local antique store called "This N' That" bought the building which housed a huge selection of books that included a ton of paperbacks. When it comes to literature (using the term loosely) I'm a sucker for paperbacks, cheap editions, and I have a forbidden love of movie novelizations. Actually, during a weekend stay in Omaha a few months ago, I just found a paperback novelization of the 1977 movie "The Goodbye Girl" which is based on Neil Simon's play, and stars Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason. I'm a fan of Neil Simon movies so it caught my eye...and my wallet. 

Anyways, the store owners were trying to sell off this huge inventory of books all summer at nearly nothing of a cost. So, they had these random sales throughout the summer. 

Arthur Kennedy as Albert Graves in "Crawlspace."

I found some desirable paperbacks and a few hard cover treasures including a first edition of Charlie Chaplin's book, "My Autobiography," and a first edition of Robert Curran's book "The Haunted" about the Smurl family of West Pittston, PA and the hauntings they claim to have endured. I think it's currently out of print. I read that book twenty years ago in two days. 

Among the haul of paper backs I walked away with, each one costing a quarter each, was Herbert Lieberman's novel "Crawlspace." 

I'd never read anything by Lieberman until now. The title alone caught my attention. 

When it comes to horror and thriller stories, I have this weird affinity for ones that take place in run-down, unsettling homes where the characters find themselves lost in the hallways and walls within. Movies such as "Nothing But Trouble," "The People Under the Stairs" and "The Boy" come to mind. What's inside the walls? What's behind all those doors? What's down in the basement? They have to go in, in order to get out. It's an imagination's playground. 

I couldn't put the book down. But if I did, I was anxious to get back to it. The story begins with a vagrant living in the crawlspace of a New England couple's home. 

According to fantasticfiction.com, it's Lieberman's first novel. And if his other books are anything like this one, Lieberman definitely kicked off his novel-writing career with an entertaining and truly suspenseful book that kept me wanting to come back, no matter how frustrating I found the characters to be. 

And me being...well...me, I had to find out if this, or anything Lieberman wrote, received the honorary movie adaptation. Luckily enough, "Crawlspace" did get a movie adaptation back in '72. It's a made for T.V. That's really nothing special. But it is what it is. I'll take it. 

By the way. I've already reviewed a movie called "Crawlspace" with Klaus Kinski. That's a completely different movie. 

This "Crawlspace" based on Lieberman's book is difficult to find. Regardless, I was determined to find it. I certainly wasn't willing to pay the $172 Amazon was asking for a copy of the DVD. 

So, I found it uploaded for free on the YouTube channel, "TVTERRORLAND." Granted the video quality is a bit poor, but it worked out alright. 

Like the novel, the story begins with an elder couple, Albert and Alice Graves (Arthur Kennedy and Teresa Wright) who live alone in a small home in a quaint New England town. 

The couple never had children of their own. 

Tom Happer as Richard Atlee.

It's winter when the story opens, and the Graves's furnace is low on oil. So, they call for someone to replenish their supply. 

A young-looking kid named Richard Atlee (Tom Happer) comes over to take care of it. When he's done, Alice chats with Richard for a bit before inviting him to stay for dinner, which Richard accepts. Albert isn't keen on the idea but just goes along with it. During dinner, Richard takes an interest in Albert's books, particularly a book of poems by William Blake. Richard asks to borrow it, and Albert reluctantly agrees so long as he promises to return it. 

A few days later, the couple wakes up to noises outside near their cellar door. Albert checks the basement the next morning to see what might have cause the noise. 

When he crawls in, he finds some small items that belong to him including the book of poems he lent Richard. 

Disturbed by this discovery, yet sympathetic to the young man, the couple soon begin to take pity and welcome Richard into their home and take care of him. 

Richard, in turn, works around the house, and often cooks for them as well. 

However, things take a dark turn rather quickly, especially as locals in town don't care much for Richard's presence. Nor do they approve of the Graves giving him room and board. 

The story follows Albert and Alice's relationship, and how negatively it's affected once they invite Richard into their lives. In fact, Richard soon dominates their whole lives. Their irrational kindness morphs to pure regret and a sense of being trapped. Richard doesn't kidnap them, but he develops a psychological hold on the both of them.  

I think this made-for-tv adaptation captures the sharp emotions in the book, but to a diluted degree. 

It needs a longer run time to include some of the more crucial scenes in the book, especially the shocking ending. 

One scene in the book which isn't included in the movie sees Richard showing Albert a cave deep in the woods behind their house where he was hiding for a while. There, Richard and Albert have a conversation about themselves that gives the reader insight into both of their motivations and mind-sets. Some other crucial scenes in the book are simply given lip service. 

The movie goes through the actions, and has a small amount of the book's intrigue, but it doesn't give the story enough time to develop naturally and build up properly. Some of it's there. Just as the characters capture the audience's interest, it bulldozes through the final act and then ends. 

Teresa Wright as Alice Graves.

It feels much too condensed and misses the emotional turmoil Alice and Albert deal with by having Richard stay with them. It tries. It clearly does!

I mentioned sharp emotions. The story deals with empathy, trust, priorities, regret, fear, family, intrusion, duty...there's a lot in this story. 

Despite the compacted movie version of "Crawlspace," it still manages to portray that initial fear behind someone intruding into our lives whom we're unable escape from thanks to fear. 

The actors, especially Arthur Kennedy and Tom Happer, do a well enough with what they're working with. 

The way they depict their respective characters is how I imagined them when I read the book. 

I hope one of these days, Lieberman's initial novel gets a theatrical movie. It has a lot of promise and suspense. It's also timely in a metaphoric sort of way. You know - welcoming undesirable strangers into our own home with only a false notion of charity to back up the insanity behind such a dangerous decision. 

It's a story that should be given the theatrical treatment. The T.V. movie told the story semi-well. And being a made-for-TV film, "Crawlspace" is more like an extended episode of some TV drama. It does as much as it can with what's given to it - good actors and a thrilling, suspenseful story. 

As for the novel, it's the best 25 cents has ever gotten me! 

211) Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

"The real Santa was totally different. The Coca-Cola Santa is just a hoax."

Director

Jalmari Helander

Cast
Onni Tommila - Pietari Kontio
Jorma Tommila - Rauno Kontio
Tommi Korpela - Aimo
Rauno Juvonen - Piiparinen
Per Christian Ellefsen - Riley
Ilmari Järvenpää - Juuso
Peeter Jakobi - Pietari's Elf

I wanted to review a sci-fi Christmas movie for my platform 1000daysofscifi.blogspot.com. My first post over there, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" is the only sci-fi Christmas movie I know of. Otherwise, I had trouble finding another one. 

When Googling other movies in the holiday sci-fi subgenre, if there is such a subgenre, I came up with a list of Christmas movies that look more like horror that sci-fi. One of the movies suggested by Google was the 1984 movie "Gremlins." I suppose that can be labeled science fiction. It is a Christmas movie. Afterall, the holiday plays an integral part in the "Gremlins" story, so it checks that part of the formula in what constitutes a Christmas movie. As for sci-fi, that's another discussion for another time, which I'll probably never have on this nor any of my other platforms. 

On IMDB's list of "Christmas Movies SciFi & Horror Style" the titles I found there seem to be horror rather than sci-fi. 

And "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" from 2010 is number one on the list. So, I cozied up in a Christmassy blanket, poured me a glass of egg nog and brandy (I can't have one without the other) and watched this list-topping sci-fi or horror movie. 

"Rare Exports" is a Finnish movie labeled as a fantasy action horror comedy. The horror is light. The fantasy is moderate, and the action increases as the story progresses. Above all, it's certainly a take on Santa Claus and his lore the likes of which I haven't seen in any other movie. 

The film starts as a research and excavation team, working for the firm "Subzero," are drilling for samples on top of a fell called Korvatunturi located in the Lapland region of Finland. 

Riley (Per Christian Ellefsen), the excavation leader, thinks this fell is really a burial site built by the ancient native people known as the Sámi. He hopes to unearth the remains of Santa Claus whom he believes is buried within. 

Meanwhile, from the village at the foot of the fell, two young boys, Juuso (Ilmari Järvenpää) and Pietari (Onni Tommila), sneak up to the top of the fell to watch the workers blast open and search inside the alleged huge burial site. Pietari lives with his father, Rauno (Jorma Tommila), in the village.
Juuso tells Pietari that Santa Claus is, in fact, real. However, the common depiction of Santa as the jolly old fat man dressed in red is made up. The real Santa hands out punishments to bad children that are far more severe than putting coal in their stockings. He does, however, watch children closely. And that includes Juuso and Pietari. 

Meanwhile, reindeer hunters from the village discover nearly hundreds of dead reindeers near their village. They think wolves were driven to kill all these reindeer by the Subzero workers scaring the wolves down to the village, especially after using dynamite to blast into the stone. 

So, several villagers march up the top of the fell to demand reparation for the dead reindeer as they rely on the hunting for food and such. 

When they reach the top, there's no one up there. All they find is a massive deep hole. 

Meanwhile, one of Rauno's wolf traps ends up capturing a strange, seemingly deceased, naked old man on Christmas Eve morning. 

Rauno and his neighbor Piiparinen (Rauno Juvonen) take the body into the slaughterhouse and lay him down. They soon realize the old man is still alive. Piiparinen leans in close to the old man, who suddenly jumps up and bites his ear. 

As they tie him up and discuss what they should do next, Pietari tries calling his friends only to find that they're all missing. 

Pietari fears the old man is actually Santa, and that his friends are missing because they must have been bad and were therefor taken by Santa. 

So, he's compelled to confess to his dad that he snuck up to the fell and caused the deer to be eaten by wolves. If he confesses, then maybe Santa will leave him alone. 

Rauno and Piiparinen decide to dress the old man as Santa and offer to sell him to Subzero workers as compensation for the money lost from the dead deer. 

They haul this guy up to the fell where they meet Riley. However, he tells them the old man is not Santa. Rather, he's one of Santa's elves. 

Soon, several other elves appear and end up killing Riley. 

The men run into a nearby hanger where they find a looming horned figure frozen in ice, which turns out to actually be Santa Claus. 

Next to him is a huge sack filled with crying screaming children. 

Their discovery turns into a destroy and rescue mission, and Pietari takes it upon himself to come up with and carry out the plans to accomplish this unbelievable task. 

"Rare Exports" is more horror with little (if any) sci-fi elements as general audiences would claim the meaning of "sci-fi" to be.

The movie has an unsettling tone unlike other holiday horror movies I've seen, particularly those movies that depict an evil Santa in some way or another. That also includes the 2015 movie, "Krampus" which has a tinge of satire to it.  A lot of that tone comes from its dramatic tone and realistic (real world) atmosphere.

There's something about the evil child-punishing elements surround Santa Claus, or whatever depiction of Santa various countries have, that seems to be all the trend now.

What I don't appreciation is the trend in celebrating folkloric Christmas characters like Krampus who has become a symbol of anti-Christmas and defiance in general in modern society. Various places now offer kids an opportunity to visit Krampus just as they would visit Santa Claus, and get their picture taken with him.

Society today lambasts personal responsibility for crimes and misdeeds, so it's no wonder that the evil side of Christmas folkloric characters like Krampus are celebrated in place of Christ or Saint Nicholas at Christmas. Being contrarian in the face of innocence and goodness is nothing to aspire.

Anyways, I think "Rare Exports" is a horror movie with subtle comedy or satire that audiences might interpret in different ways. Perhaps it's a criticism or cynical take of modern Christmas commercialism and how it sees the history of Christmas celebrations. 

It's a different take on the whole "bad Santa" schtick seen over and over again in movies, especially horror movies.  

What I like about this is it's real-world realism. I enjoy movies that take a true-to-life approach to fictional and fantastical aspects of life...like Santa Claus. Mel Gibson did it really well in the 2021 movie, "Fatman." The 2004 independent movie, "Primer" is such a movie that takes a realistic depiction of time travel comes to mind. Although, "Rare Exports" still carries a hint of fantasy. How can a movie about Santa, no matter how serious it tries to be, not carry a tone of fantasy? 

It's an entertaining, certainly different, type of movie. I have an interest in movies that portray otherwise fantastical things in a true-to-life manner. 

I'm skeptical about what I'm supposed to take away from this movie, at least as far as consequences go for a person's misdeeds. What are the characters saving the world from? A retributive Santa? The consequences of misdeeds? Old ancient lores? Is the movie satirizing that whole notion? Or is it just a creature-feature rendition of Santa Claus and his elves? 

Whatever the case might be, it's unpredictable. I honestly couldn't determine what was going to happen. When I thought I knew where the story was leading, it went in a different direction from what I expected.  

The movie is well structured and certainly something unlike anything I've seen before in the huge library of Christmas movies of any genre. 

It has satisfying suspense with the spice of terror, action, and fantasy. Within all that maintains a true Christmas feel and charm. And I mean that! As far as its story goes, I'm still unsure what sort of message it's trying to leave me with. Otherwise, the movie doesn't overstay its welcome, and doesn't waste time with excessive build-up, nor does it feel conceited.