The Coffee Table Will Rip Your Heart Out

I know what some of you are probably thinking. A name like The Coffee Table doesn’t exactly send chills down your spine. If anything, it sounds like the film is going to put you to sleep, but this is actually one of the most intense cinematic experiences I’ve ever had. The press email described the movie to me as “one of the cruelest films ever made,” and now that I’ve seen it for myself, I can confirm that whoever wrote that was not exaggerating.

The Coffee Table was directed and co-written by Caye Casas, and it stars David Pareja, Estefanía de los Santos, Josep Riera, Claudia Riera, and Eduardo Antuña. In the movie, Jesús and María are new parents going through a bit of a rough patch, and when we first meet them, they’re in a store arguing about whether to purchase the titular coffee table. María hates it, but despite his wife’s protestations, Jesús buys it anyway. And that ends up being the worst decision he ever made.

Some time afterward, María goes shopping and leaves her husband alone with their newborn son. It seems like no big deal, but the story soon takes an unexpectedly dark turn. Jesús falls into the new table while carrying the baby, and the poor kid ends up getting decapitated. Jesús is utterly traumatized by the accident, but he decides to hide the truth from his wife. He cleans up the mess and tells María the baby is just sleeping, and when his brother and the guy’s new girlfriend come over to meet the kid, Jesús tries his best to keep his dark secret from ruining the occasion.

On paper, that plot synopsis might remind you a bit of the Alfred Hitchcock classic Rope, but for my money, The Coffee Table takes its cue from another, much more recent film–Hereditary. More specifically, it’s very reminiscent of the harrowing sequence where Charlie gets decapitated and her brother just leaves her headless body in the car for their mother to find.

You might even say The Coffee Table is just that sequence stretched out to fill an entire movie. Granted, it doesn’t quite reach the torturous heights of Ari Aster’s haunting debut, but it makes up for its lighter punch by forcing you to sit with Jesús’ terrible secret for much, much longer.

Now, part of what makes that sequence in Hereditary so effective is Alex Wolff’s great turn as Charlie’s brother, and The Coffee Table leans on a similarly excellent performance. David Pareja is amazing as Jesús, and he absolutely nails the trauma this guy experiences at the death of his newborn son. He almost looks like he’s about to faint the entire time, so everything he does and says, even down to his facial expressions, gives off a palpable sense of unbearable pain.

That being said, Pareja doesn’t carry this movie all by himself. The Coffee Table can’t truly work unless his co-stars carry their weight as well, and thankfully, the rest of this cast is 100% up to the task. They’re completely believable as Jesús’ blissfully ignorant wife, brother, and not-quite-sister-in-law, so they’re the perfect foils for this tortured father. Their utter exuberance at the mere existence of the baby would be infectious if you didn’t know he was dead, and that joy makes Jesús’ secret heartache stand out all the more.

That dynamic is the heart and soul of this entire film, and it’s devastatingly effective. The uncomfortable tension will have you squirming in your seat from the moment the kid dies, and the story will stick with you long after the credits begin to roll. It’s almost a traumatic experience in itself, so if this doesn’t sound like something you’d enjoy, practice some self-care and give The Coffee Table a pass.

To be fair, there’s more to this movie than just that excruciating tension. For example, even though we don’t see Jesús fall, the aftermath of the accident is pretty gory. The baby’s blood splatters all over the place, and Jesús himself sustains a nasty injury as well. He gets some glass in his hand, and when he pulls it out, the camera forces us to watch him do it. It’s pretty intense, and the effects in this scene are totally convincing.

On top of that, The Coffee Table is also a hilarious black comedy. For the first twenty minutes or so, the humor comes primarily from Jesús and María’s banter, and it had me laughing out loud at least once every minute or two. However, after the tragic accident, the jokes take on a much darker tone, and they play off of the character’s ignorance of the baby’s death.

To take just one example, there’s a scene where María laughs at her husband for breaking his table so quickly, and she wishes that she could’ve seen his face when it happened. Of course, if she knew the truth, she would say nothing of the sort, but that dark irony is what makes the gag so funny.

It’s the kind of humor you can’t help but laugh at even though part of you isn’t entirely sure you should, so it just adds to the uncomfortable tension. It helps make The Coffee Table a genuinely unrelenting emotional assault, so like I said before, if this isn’t your wheelhouse, you should stay as far away from it as possible. But if this is the kind of horror you enjoy, you’re going to love it. It truly is “one of the cruelest films ever made,” and for those of you brave enough to check it out, it’s an experience you won’t soon forget.

The Coffee Table is set to begin a limited theatrical run in Los Angeles on April 19, with other cities to follow, including New York, Austin, and Chicago. Then, it’ll arrive on VOD and DVD on May 14.