Santa Claws

The tone of Christmas-themed horror features has long been one of campy excess. Films like “Silent Night, Deadly Night” and “Santa’s Slay” depicted St. Nick as the kind of lunatic who kills people with icicles and can successfully be portrayed by Bill Goldberg.

“Rare Exports” is a Finnish take on the Evil Santa myth that attempts to be more serious than its predecessors and mostly succeeds. Here, Father Christmas isn’t a homicidal maniac but an ancient supernatural being who uses his omniscience to punish the naughty.

It’s a premise that could be goofy in the wrong hands, but “Rare Exports” handles it masterfully with deliberate pacing and unwinking performances. There are moments of comedy because, at the end of the day, this is still a movie about excavating and destroying Santa Claus. But these moments are handled with the utmost care by director Jalmari Helander.

The film is too slickly produced to ever attain the cult status of some of its holiday horror counterparts, but it’s a truly singular achievement. Santa’s been scary before, but he’s never been quite like this.