The Coffee Table

There’s a scene in the first QUIET PLACE movie that involves the point of a sharp nail left sticking up on a staircase, and the bare heel of EMILY BLUNT’S foot. Have you seen it? Do you remember the scene I’m talking about? More to the point, do you remember how it made you feel? if you’re anything like me, the entire focus of those few minutes was on the nauseating inevitability of her standing on that nail.

Do you think you could stand a whole ninety minutes of that kind of excruciating unease? Because that’s pretty much what you get with THE COFFEE TABLE.

Jesus and Maria are a couple going through a difficult time in their relationship. Nevertheless, they have just become parents. To shape their new life, they decide to buy a new coffee table. A decision that will change their existence.

I’d heard this film talked about quite a bit on its initial release last year, and I was surprised to find it streaming for free on TUBI and a couple of other similar sites so soon after (I’m not sure if it’s still available there, but you can watch it on SHUDDER – free trial here). Despite being aware of the largely positive buzz surrounding THE COFFEE TABLE, I managed to go into it more or less blind, and I recommend you do the same. No spoilers here. The trailer I’ve shared here does a brilliant job of not giving anything away.

I’d heard talk about the film’s darkness, about its black humour, about its utterly bleak horror… and it didn’t disappoint on any level. The film is directed by CAYE CASAS and is a small-scale, claustrophobic affair with a limited setting and small cast. The enclosed nature of the story is key to its impact, which is further increased by its grounding in grim domestic reality. What happens to the characters is down to (incredibly) bad luck and circumstance, and no matter how preposterous and awful what you’re watching becomes, you can’t shake the feeling that we’re all only one shitty break away from having our lives irreversibly derailed.

I’m resorting to cliche here, but watching the film is like having a really bad dream, and there’s a real feeling of relief when the end credits start to roll. It’s a tough, tough watch, and you really need to be in the right mindset for it. It’s a unique movie, and it’s absolutely horrible. The poster describes it as ‘a cruel Caye Casas film’ and I can’t argue with that.