The Finnish film documenting the true, ghastly nature of Santa Clause looked like it could be exploitation horror fun, but instead will leave you with question marks dangling over your head. The film makes huge leaps in narrative logic, in one case young Pietari deducing from explosions on a mountain, “Santa’s under there!”
What?!
Nothing implies such a statement and Pietari’s proclamation stands in for the film’s inability to expose such a key plot detail in any other fashion. Which is emblematic for the rest of the film, including the moment Pietari, hitherto a weakling, suddenly becomes Rambo as he organizes helicopter pickups and heroic gestures. Everything is inexplicable in Finland evidently.
Some of the issues could stem from a terrible subtitle translation, but most of the awful simply stems from bad storytelling. Cool idea, terrible execution. Don’t even bother renting.
-Remington Smith
The Filmsmith 