THE COFFEE TABLE (aka LA MESITA DEL COMEDOR, 2022)

New in select theaters and available On Demand on May 14, 2024 from Cinephobia Releasing!
Directed by Caye Casas.
Written by Caye Casas, Cristina Borobia.
Starring David Pareja, Estefanía de los Santos, Josep Maria Riera, Claudia Riera, Eduardo Antuña, Gala Flores, Cristina Dilla, Itziar Castro, Paco Benjumea, Clàudia Font
Check out the trailer here!!

Feeling as if he has not had a say in anything since he married his wife Maria (Estefanía de los Santos), Jesus (David Pareja) demands that he pick out a gaudy coffee table to feel as if he still is able to make decisions of his own. Having just given birth to a baby boy, Maria relents and lets him get the table. This banal act proves to be the most devastating decision of Jesus’s life.

THE COFFEE TABLE at first seems harmless, but man is this film one sneaky rat bastard. It lures you in, making you feel sympathetic towards Jesus, who seems to be a good man, despite the fact that he does get pushed around a lot by the people in his life. His wife is overbearing. He is bamboozled by the furniture salesman to buy the shoddy table. And to make matters worse, the 13-year-old neighbor girl is in love with him and threatens to out their fictional relationship to his wife. All of this, plus Jesus is not certain he is ready to be a father, but seems to go with the flow, nevertheless. It paints a very sympathetic picture of the guy and actor David Pareja sells this lovable loser with every step. The fact that you like Jesus is crucial for what is to come at about the twenty-minute mark of THE COFFEE TABLE.

And no, you aren’t prepared for it. And no, I’m not going to spoil it. Just know that you’re going to be hit with a punch so hard, you’re going to think Mike Tyson directed it. While the setting is a common apartment in a common home, writer/director Caye Casas and her co-writer Cristina Borobia are able to make the most mundane of environments the setting for pure nightmare. It takes your worst fears and makes them real in the most human of ways.

THE COFFEE TABLE transforms into a grueling, tension-laden freight train for the duration of the movie. While you know there will be an unavoidable point in the film where the truth is revealed, but Casas draws this suspense out to immeasurable lengths. Through Casas’ direction and Pareja’s acting, you feel every bead of sweat and every ounce of regret that fills every moment of this movie. Not only do you feel so horrified by what you witness, but you regret the moment the cat is out of the bag. What culminates in the climax is a perfect play with expectations, stretching your emotions to their limits and grounding it’s heel into your heart at what this family must inevitably experience.

THE COFFEE TABLE is not a monster movie. It’s no slasher or found footager or kaiju or possession flick. It’s the horror of being human, making mistakes, and having the strength to deal with them. It’s one of the most disturbing films I’ve seen this year in that it burrows deep into honest emotions that you may not be comfortable with. I guarantee you will not forget this white-knuckle shocker from Spain.