All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

#8 – THE COFFEE TABLE (aka LA MESITA DEL COMEDOR, 2022)
Released on April 15, 2024, and available On Demand from Cinephobia Releasing!
Directed by Caye Casas.
Written by Caye Casas, Cristina Borobia.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/v4jE5k5Wmzc
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 its 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 footage 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.

HANDLING THE UNDEAD (aka Håndtering av udøde, 2024)
Released on May 31, 2024, and is streaming on Hulu from NEON Films!
Directed by Thea Hvistendahl.
Written by Thea Hvistendahl, John Ajvide Lindqvist (screenplay), from a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/qrmpti8QHco
No one knows how or why, but the dead begin to rise in a small Norwegian community, but instead of the world devolving into chaos, three grieving families slowly and quietly deal with the possibility that their recently deceased loved one has returned.

I lost my own father when I was a young kid and I think this is a common dream for those who lose someone at a young age, but I often have vivid dreams of my father, simply showing up at the breakfast table one day as if he hadn’t died at all. This is always a dream I wake from with a deep feeling of unease, as I have gone through the process of accepting he wouldn’t be a part of my life anymore, but still, there is this irrational sliver of hope that someday, somehow, I will have some kind of interaction with this important figure in my life again. HANDLING THE UNDEAD deals with that broad spectrum of uncomfortable feelings by splitting its time pretty evenly, cutting to three families dealing with the ramifications of the return of their loved ones.

A family whose mother died in a car crash are relieved when all of a sudden, her dead body seems to come to live in the hospital. A grieving grandfather and mother are shocked to find their young boy alive when they hear rumblings coming from his recently buried casket. And an elderly woman is shocked to find her recently deceased partner simply shows up at her doorstep. HANDLING THE UNDEAD deals with this uncomfortable feeling of the grieving process interrupted by the possibility that the loved one hasn’t died after all.

And a thorough analysis of how we react to death does not make for the most hilarious of movies. Everything is handled in the most serious of ways, through a morose, static, and washed-out lens. HANDLING THE UNDEAD doesn’t pull its punches and forces the viewer to accept these intense emotions whether they want to or not. One is never given an opportunity to laugh and even when the grieving families might feel positive feelings seeing their loved ones again, there is still an ever-present dire tone to it all. Those who have returned from the grip of death are not the same people who these people once knew. They come back stiff, silent, and disorientated. They are unable to show love back to those who they return to. There does seem to be a vague notion the undead seem to have of their past lives as they seem to be drawn back to their loved ones, but are unable to express anything else.

The stories play out as heartbreaking as one would imagine. First, each family member is shocked and ecstatic to see their loved ones again, ignoring the fact that the undead are not acting like they once did. But as time goes on, this magic fades and we are left with that dangling feeling of “what do we do now?” And once the answer comes, it is equally devastating. I don’t want to give anything away, but the film soon devolves into a palpable horror film that wrecked my soul after watching.

If you’re depressed or recently have lost a loved one, HANDLING THE UNDEAD is not a film I would recommend for you. It is a film that left me in such a dark place, I had to take a break from horror for a little while. The feelings this dark film drudges up are not comfortable, but they feel necessary. It deals with the complicated emotions involved in taking care of a loved one who can no longer return that love and asks questions about why we keep loved ones, sickly relatives, and terminally diagnosed animals around, even though they no longer are the beautiful souls we once knew. Is it selfish to keep an animal in pain alive if it means saving us from the pain of experiencing the death of a loved one? And where is that line indicating that death is more of a relief for all than the burden of ongoing care? I don’t know the answers to these questions and through my life, I have had to make these hard decisions about pets, only to long for one more minute with these lost souls. It’s human to fear death and try to avoid it, but it is inhuman to prolong suffering and push back the inevitable. Those are the utterly serious issues HANDLING THE DEAD deals with in a mature and deft way. This is a sophisticated and mature film dealing with uncomfortable, yet unavoidable truths about life and death. Just prepare yourself, if you take a chance with this tragically beautiful yet harrowing film.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2023-2024
#31 – HERE FOR BLOOD (DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS)
#30 – THANKSGIVING (THE SACRIFICE GAME)
#29 – MILK & SERIAL (LOWLIFES)
#28 – PROJECT SILENCE (FROGMAN)
#27 – THE SEEDING (DARK HARVEST)
#26 – BEEZEL (THE FRESH HELL TRILOGY)
#25 – ABERRANCE (COLD MEAT)
#24 – OUT OF DARKNESS (ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH)
#23 – ARCADIAN (A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE)
#22 – YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (GHOSTS OF THE VOID)
#21 – NEVER LET GO (LOVELY, DARK, & DEEP)
#20 – ABIGAIL (BLACKOUT)
#19 – SPEAK NO EVIL (EIGHT EYES)
#18 – BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (LISA FRANKENSTEIN)
#17 – MAXXXINE (SHERYL)
#16 – CUCKOO (AMELIA’S CHILDREN)
#15 – 15 CAMERAS (MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW)
#14 – DO NOT DISTURB (KILL YOUR LOVER)
#13 – WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS (HELL HOLE)
#12 – ALIEN: ROMULUS (INFESTED)
#11 – HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR (V/H/S/85)
#10 – STOP MOTION (MONOLITH)
#9 – IN A VIOLENT NATURE (HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS)
#8 – THE COFFEE TABLE (HANDLING THE UNDEAD)

Read written reviews and my comics news at https://mlmillerwrites.com/

Music Written by Tim Heidecker
Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
(I do not own this music)