WFG RATING: B+

Cinephobia Releasing presents an Alhena/Apocalipsis/La Charito/Pulsar Films production. Directed and edited by Caye Casas. Produced by Norbert Llaras and Maria Jose Serra. Written by Caye Casas and Cristina Borobia. Cinematography by Alberto Morago.

Stars David Pareja, Estefania de los Santos, Josep Maria Riera, Claudia Riera, Eduardo Antuna, and Gala Flores. 

A new father’s bad day gets only worse in this psychological horror film from Caye Casas. 

Jesus and Maria have just become parents for the first time when she gives birth to a son, Cayetano. However, parenthood has taken a toll on them. When they head to a furniture store, they come across a coffee table that promises to have unbreakable glass. Despite Maria’s reservation, Jesus buys the table and promises to put it together. 

When Jesus feels like he needs a day to himself, Maria decides to relent and give him the day to himself and the baby. The baby starts to cry and Jesus carries the baby. When they walk towards the table, a freak accident leads to Jesus with blood all over him and in complete shock. He begins to worry about what will happen when she returns and to make matters worse, his brother is planning to come for dinner with his new girlfriend. 

From the mind of Caye Casas comes this very intense psychological horror focusing on a new father whose mistake leads him to experience a sense of paranoia. The film has shades of the 2018 film The Lullaby, where a new mother experiences a very dangerous level of post-partum stress only in this film, we see a new father covering up a fatal accident and questioning himself on all accounts, only to make things complicated with his wife, brother, and brother’s new girlfriend as well as the 12-year-old neighbor who comes off as annoying.

David Pareja is excellent in the role of Jesus, who is dealing with life in terms of becoming a first-time dad with his wife Maria, played by Estefania de los Santos. She too, feels stressed with parenthood but her decision to let Jesus get a free day to himself leads to the film’s central plot as we see Jesus’s paranoia go from bad to worse. It gets to where, in a scene that seems to be laughable because when Maria learns the glass has broken, she breaks out into this laughter that reminds me of Consuelo Duval’s laugh on the show La Familia P. Luche and I couldn’t help but laugh, but this was a breather from all the chaos. 

The third act, where we see Jesus’ brother and his new girlfriend, is quite shocking, disturbing in terms of Jesus’ paranoia slowly getting worse, and leads to a final scene that made my jaw drop. 

The Coffee Table is quite a shocking character study of a new father whose mistake leads to his slow descent into paranoia with an excellent performance by David Pareja. If you like psychological horror in terms of a lead character, this may be your cup of tea.