Plot: Unspeakable horror meets the blackest of black comedy. To celebrate the birth of their baby, a bickering couple buys a coffee table. Guaranteed to bring happiness to their family by the smarmy salesman, the couple instead find nothing but horror with this furniture and all without ghosts, monsters or possessions, just a tacky coffee table.
Review: It is hard for movies to fall between the cracks for a movie site like ours. Rarely do we learn of a movie after everyone else, especially two years late. The Coffee Table, directed by Caye Casas, is a Spanish movie that debuted in 2022 in Europe before hitting the festival circuit in 2023. The movie snuck onto DVD and streaming platforms domestically in April but is now buzzing thanks to an endorsement on social media from Stephen King. Knowing nothing about the film besides King’s endorsement, I checked out The Coffee Table and...
Review: It is hard for movies to fall between the cracks for a movie site like ours. Rarely do we learn of a movie after everyone else, especially two years late. The Coffee Table, directed by Caye Casas, is a Spanish movie that debuted in 2022 in Europe before hitting the festival circuit in 2023. The movie snuck onto DVD and streaming platforms domestically in April but is now buzzing thanks to an endorsement on social media from Stephen King. Knowing nothing about the film besides King’s endorsement, I checked out The Coffee Table and...
- 5/20/2024
- by Alex Maidy
- JoBlo.com
Horror fans looking to test their mettle should take note of director Caye Casas‘s The Coffee Table. Horror master Stephen King recently said of the pitch-black tragicomedy, “My guess is you have never, not once in your whole life, seen a movie as black as this one. It’s horrible and also horribly funny.”
That sums up this grim movie well, with King’s recommendation worth taking.
In a press release, Casas said, “We wanted to make one of the cruelest films ever made, one that people cannot forget. It will make them feel very strong emotions, real terror without monsters, zombies, ghosts or murderers, only with a dining room table and the cruelest fate that you can imagine.”
The filmmaker, who co-wrote the film with Cristina Borobia, isn’t downplaying the cruelty.
The film “follows Jesus and Maria, a couple going through a difficult time in their relationship.
That sums up this grim movie well, with King’s recommendation worth taking.
In a press release, Casas said, “We wanted to make one of the cruelest films ever made, one that people cannot forget. It will make them feel very strong emotions, real terror without monsters, zombies, ghosts or murderers, only with a dining room table and the cruelest fate that you can imagine.”
The filmmaker, who co-wrote the film with Cristina Borobia, isn’t downplaying the cruelty.
The film “follows Jesus and Maria, a couple going through a difficult time in their relationship.
- 5/15/2024
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
The poster for the innocuously named “The Coffee Table” notes that it is “A Cruel Caye Casas Film.” The unique designation is certainly fitting, given the storm of controversy it’s stirring up among horror fans. The comically vague logline for the Spanish film — new parents buy a coffee table that will change their lives forever — hides a shocking incident that happens early on. Said incident is not for the faint of heart, and director and co-writer Casas is eager to not only lean into the controversy but take willing audiences on an emotional journey of horror without monsters or the supernatural.
Without spoiling the central incident, Casas explained his film to Variety, including how much he wanted to push audiences, the unique title and how he reacted when Stephen King recommended his work.
(Note: This interview was conducted over email for accuracy between the Spanish and Catalan-speaking Casas and the English-speaking author.
Without spoiling the central incident, Casas explained his film to Variety, including how much he wanted to push audiences, the unique title and how he reacted when Stephen King recommended his work.
(Note: This interview was conducted over email for accuracy between the Spanish and Catalan-speaking Casas and the English-speaking author.
- 5/13/2024
- by William Earl
- Variety Film + TV
Brothers, starring Matthieu Kassovitz and Yvan Attal, as siblings who were survived for several years alone in the wilderness when they were abandoned by their mother as young children, has been picked up by France’s Ginger & Fed and is being launched at the EFM.
Directed by Olivier Casas, the film is based on a true story by Casas and Michel Lafregeyre, one of the real-life brothers. Casas penned the script in collaboration with well-known French novelist and screenwriter Olivier Adam. It is Casas’ second feature following comedy drama Baby Phone.
Brothers is produced by Quad Films with Traveling Angel,...
Directed by Olivier Casas, the film is based on a true story by Casas and Michel Lafregeyre, one of the real-life brothers. Casas penned the script in collaboration with well-known French novelist and screenwriter Olivier Adam. It is Casas’ second feature following comedy drama Baby Phone.
Brothers is produced by Quad Films with Traveling Angel,...
- 2/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
"Buying that coffee table was the single worst decision I've ever made."
Caye Casas made a fantastic debut in 2017 as co-director of "Killing God," a hilariously dark comedy about messed-up family dynamics and a world-ending proposal. Now, he is really focusing on the dark part of dark comedy for his solo directorial debut in "The Coffee Table," a movie best watched as blind as humanly possible — if you even dare experience it. This is one of the bleakest, meanest, most unbearably cruel movies you could ever see, yet it is so uncomfortable and awkward you can't help but laugh in a maniacal way that might give you more than a few looks from those around you (if they're not laughing themselves). "The Coffee Table" is the anti-schadenfreude movie, one that gives you so much unpleasant misfortune you cannot possibly find it funny ... until you do.
The film follows a middle-aged couple,...
Caye Casas made a fantastic debut in 2017 as co-director of "Killing God," a hilariously dark comedy about messed-up family dynamics and a world-ending proposal. Now, he is really focusing on the dark part of dark comedy for his solo directorial debut in "The Coffee Table," a movie best watched as blind as humanly possible — if you even dare experience it. This is one of the bleakest, meanest, most unbearably cruel movies you could ever see, yet it is so uncomfortable and awkward you can't help but laugh in a maniacal way that might give you more than a few looks from those around you (if they're not laughing themselves). "The Coffee Table" is the anti-schadenfreude movie, one that gives you so much unpleasant misfortune you cannot possibly find it funny ... until you do.
The film follows a middle-aged couple,...
- 9/24/2023
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Slash Film
QuarXX’s “This Thing Inside of Me,” Caye Casas’ “Malamuerte” and maybe the biggest buzz title in the whole selection, Sean Wainsteim’s “Idaho Winter,” a multi-media mashup, feature in a robust, variegated lineup at Sitges FanPitch, which is quickly establishing itself as a key early fall global genre project platform drawing on titles from not only Spain but Europe, Latin and North America and Asia.
Unspooling Oct. 6-7, the FanPitch ranks as one industry centrepiece at the Sitges, International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, a hallowed genre fest Mecca and one of the most important in Europe.
Projects range widely from multiple psychological thrillers, often driving deep into protagonists’ deep trauma, to black horror-comedy, stylish scarefests, near-future allegories, the allegedly true-event paranormal, and vampire actioners.
One title, “Idaho Winter,” is billed as “YA meta-fiction.” Another, fantastical series “The Lost Gods of Memphis,” surely the biggest budgeted of all projects at this year’s FanPitch,...
Unspooling Oct. 6-7, the FanPitch ranks as one industry centrepiece at the Sitges, International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, a hallowed genre fest Mecca and one of the most important in Europe.
Projects range widely from multiple psychological thrillers, often driving deep into protagonists’ deep trauma, to black horror-comedy, stylish scarefests, near-future allegories, the allegedly true-event paranormal, and vampire actioners.
One title, “Idaho Winter,” is billed as “YA meta-fiction.” Another, fantastical series “The Lost Gods of Memphis,” surely the biggest budgeted of all projects at this year’s FanPitch,...
- 9/20/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
“The tension is constant and palpable, with the horror absurd and the laughs uneasy.”
Projected Figures
“This is not for the faint of heart! Highly uncomfortable, prompts a “I can’t believe what I am seeing and I’m not sure I want to see what lies ahead” response.”
***** The Scariest Things
The Coffee Table, Caye Casas’s beyond horrific tale has been picked up for North America distribution by Cinephobia Releasing. The movie had its world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival as well as the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and Fantapoa Fest. The Coffee Table is expecting its American festival premiere this September.
A middle aged couple, blessed with a newborn baby, buy a gaudy coffee table, a decision that will dramatically change their lives. Without much on-screen violence, Casas delivers a terrifying, almost unspeakably pitch black horror film.
The Coffee Table will kick off its...
Projected Figures
“This is not for the faint of heart! Highly uncomfortable, prompts a “I can’t believe what I am seeing and I’m not sure I want to see what lies ahead” response.”
***** The Scariest Things
The Coffee Table, Caye Casas’s beyond horrific tale has been picked up for North America distribution by Cinephobia Releasing. The movie had its world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival as well as the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and Fantapoa Fest. The Coffee Table is expecting its American festival premiere this September.
A middle aged couple, blessed with a newborn baby, buy a gaudy coffee table, a decision that will dramatically change their lives. Without much on-screen violence, Casas delivers a terrifying, almost unspeakably pitch black horror film.
The Coffee Table will kick off its...
- 8/15/2023
- by Peter 'Witchfinder' Hopkins
- Horror Asylum
Five years ago seems aeons in an era so disrupted by Covid. So it comes as a surprise to realize that the original screen “Bird Box” arrived a full 14 months or so in advance of pandemic restrictions — becoming an early Netflix pop-culture phenomenon before lockdown made that sort of thing a regular occurrence. Susanne Bier’s film of Josh Malerman’s sci-fi horror novel was intriguing and suspenseful enough, even if its emphasis on psychological drama over thrills made for a somewhat unlikely breakout hit.
Inevitably, if belatedly, there’s now a follow-up — but not an adaptation of Malerman’s own print sequel, which continued the travails of the character played by Sandra Bullock. Instead, “Bird Box Barcelona” is a “parallel story” set on another continent entirely. Written and directed by Alex and David Pastor, whose prior genre efforts “The Last Days” (2013) and “Carriers” (2009) both had similar basic premises, it...
Inevitably, if belatedly, there’s now a follow-up — but not an adaptation of Malerman’s own print sequel, which continued the travails of the character played by Sandra Bullock. Instead, “Bird Box Barcelona” is a “parallel story” set on another continent entirely. Written and directed by Alex and David Pastor, whose prior genre efforts “The Last Days” (2013) and “Carriers” (2009) both had similar basic premises, it...
- 7/11/2023
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Bird Box Barcelona, Netflix’s follow-up to the 2018 hit Bird Box, operates under the assumption that viewers are caught up to speed on the monstrous, unseen entities that rendered the world into a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Writer/Directors Álex Pastor and David Pastor bypass retreading the familiar invasion story beats to instead jump straight into character introductions against a backdrop already torn asunder. While 2018’s feature grapples with motherhood, Bird Box Barcelona explores grief, religion, and salvation. Its ambition in themes fascinates even when its execution struggles.
An opening scene introduces dad Sebastián (Mario Casas) having a touching moment with daughter Anna (Alejandra Howard) as they roller skate in an empty gym. It’s short-lived as the pair gear up with goggles and prepare for a blind trek to safety. The hostile strangers encountered shortly after signal a city deeply entrenched in and familiar with the creatures that have decimated the world.
An opening scene introduces dad Sebastián (Mario Casas) having a touching moment with daughter Anna (Alejandra Howard) as they roller skate in an empty gym. It’s short-lived as the pair gear up with goggles and prepare for a blind trek to safety. The hostile strangers encountered shortly after signal a city deeply entrenched in and familiar with the creatures that have decimated the world.
- 7/10/2023
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Martin Scorsese is executive producing “Escape,” the next film from Spanish writer-director Rodrigo Cortés, who burst onto the international scene directing Ryan Reynolds in the 2010 Sundance hit “Buried.”
Set to go into production at the end of May, Cortés’ first Spanish-language film since his debut feature, 2007 madcap dark comedy “The Contestant,” “Escape” stars Mario Casas, a Spanish Academy Award Goya winner for 2020’s “Cross the Line.”
One of Spain’s biggest film-tv stars, Casas leads a top-notch Spanish cast in “Escape” which takes in Anna Castillo, José Garcia (“Bastille Day”), Guillermo Toledo (“I’m So Excited”), Josep Maria Pou (“The Realm”), Blanca Portillo (“Maixabel”), and Jose Sacristán (“Velvet”).
Produced by Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls at Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, “Escape” is a free adaptation of the same-title novel penned by Spanish author Enrique Rubio.
“Escape” turns on N., a young man who wants to live in prison and will do whatever...
Set to go into production at the end of May, Cortés’ first Spanish-language film since his debut feature, 2007 madcap dark comedy “The Contestant,” “Escape” stars Mario Casas, a Spanish Academy Award Goya winner for 2020’s “Cross the Line.”
One of Spain’s biggest film-tv stars, Casas leads a top-notch Spanish cast in “Escape” which takes in Anna Castillo, José Garcia (“Bastille Day”), Guillermo Toledo (“I’m So Excited”), Josep Maria Pou (“The Realm”), Blanca Portillo (“Maixabel”), and Jose Sacristán (“Velvet”).
Produced by Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls at Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, “Escape” is a free adaptation of the same-title novel penned by Spanish author Enrique Rubio.
“Escape” turns on N., a young man who wants to live in prison and will do whatever...
- 5/24/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
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