My Review Of “Nicotine Stains”

“Nicotine Stains” is a horror film from Gennaro Desposito which follows a man’s psychotic break after choosing to quit smoking. Charlie is a young college graduate stuck in a dead end factory job for Vellaro Tobacco. A life long smoker, he never turns down free samples from the company ‘cigarette girl’ Sugar, even if they do contain a newly developed, synthetic tobacco. Charlie’s girlfriend Jen convinces him to quit smoking but little do they know the hold the new cigarettes have on Charlie. The film stars Matthew Fowler; Lacy Hornick; Chris Ehling; Sunny Williams; Kyle Duncan Graham; Renee Sher; Chelsea Collins and Don McCutcheon.

“Nicotine Stains” is much more than a standard horror, with blended elements of surrealism, minimalism and  atmospheric grandeur, it is more like a modern grand guignol. The story, once you realize the nature of the lead character’s psychosis, seems almost laughable but it expresses the depth of struggle he has with quitting smoking. As someone who did quite, I can attest to the mind producing some pretty far out thoughts about the people around you, and all the reasons not to quit: like “if you quit then you will just be giving in to social demands” or “if I didn’t date you then I wouldn’t be forced to quit.” This movie carries that theme to the ninth level of hell. There are several film styles utilized in “Nicotine Stains” but it is at it’s core a well directed modern horror film. More cult classic than you expect going into the film.

The most notable qualities about “Nicotine Stains” that worked for this film were, the sound track-classic 80’s giallo sounds of creepiness, The use of various colors to express different heightened emotional moments in the film- very Argento-esque but the gore sets it off! It hold’s up to more classic grindhouse horror films of splatter,guts and gruesome vivacity. The acting in the film has it’s moments that seem mediocre but not to the point it makes it hard to connect with the characters. For the most part the acting is quality. The story, all though based in a very exaggerated beginning, is fresh and very modern-most of us have been that person trying to quit, or dealing with someone who is trying to quit. It always seems to consume everything about the relationships and environment. The only downside to the film dealt with the synthetic nicotine. It was only casually mentioned once, maybe twice and it would have been nice to see that element played up more in the story. It didn’t really hurt the film that it wasn’t I just think it would have been cool to see it driven in more. The horror in this film is more of visual gore than scary. All in all “Nicotine Stains” is a really cool Indie film and Desposito deserves props because he has a style that is already a modern cult classic.