Jesus and Maria are a couple going through a difficult time in their relationship. After many years of trying hey have just become parents. Redecorating their home to reflect their change in circumstances, they decide to buy a new coffee table. It is a decision that will have horrific consequences for everyone.
Grimmfest Says: Not exactly a horror film, but nevertheless utterly horrific, this starts as a sour black comedy, before quickly spiralling into a suffocating nightmare of desperate deception and guilt, in which the heart-in-the-mouth suspense lies in waiting for the inevitable discovery of the truth. Anchoring its narrative logic in a sharp, uncomfortable, all-too-believeable portrait of marital tensions, following the birth of a child, and of a rather weak man’s attempts to assert some manner of independence in the face of a wife who he feels controls every aspect of their life together, the film carefully cranks up the tension, as the grotesque table of the title, bought mostly to spite the wife, unleashes a catastrophe that will destroy not just the couple themselves, but all of those around them. Beautifully played, with plenty of dark, twisted, very Spanish black humour, it has the same sense of social anxiety and escalating chaos as a domestic farce, but is played utterly, brutally straight. And it really, truly is a film that will shake even the most hardened of genre fans.