Novocaine: the US box office hit shot in Cape Town

Nathan Caine feels no pain in Novocaine, this week’s Sunday night movie on M-Net (DStv Channel 101) at 8PM on 30 November 2025. The action comedy is also streaming on Showmax from Monday, 1 December 2025.

Nate, aka Novocaine, is a bank employee with CIPA – Congenital Insensitivity to Pain – caused by mutations in the NTRK1 gene. Far from being a superhero, Nate can’t even risk solid food in case he gnaws off his own tongue. When bank robbers take his coworker Sherry hostage, Nate sets off to be a hero for the sake of love, turning his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back. 

As Nate, Jack Quaid (Hughie in The Boys) was nominated for a Critics Choice Super Award for Best Actor in an Action Movie. Amber Midthunder (Prey) co-stars as Sherry with Ray Nicholson (Smile 2) as bank robber Simon Greely. 

Although Novocaine is set in San Diego, the #1 US box office hit was filmed in South Africa over eight weeks in March 2024. Blue Ice Africa was the local service company, responsible for travel, crew, logistics, locations and the budget.

Whether Novocaine needed a booby-trapped house, or a black-and-white classic American cop car, Blue Ice found a way to make it happen. “Anything on screen was sourced locally,” says Blue Ice founding partner Adam Friedlander. 

“We know the right people. There are left-hand drive vehicles that can be wrapped as taxis or police cars,” says Blue Ice head of production Daniela Springer. If it didn’t exist, they got it made. “We built an ambulance for Novocaine. That was pretty cool. We actually used to have meetings in the back of the ambulance.”

From bank robbery scenes shot in the Paarl CBD, to sweet diner scenes shot in Sea Point, it all had to look like San Diego on screen. “We shot in the docks. We shot in Bellville. We shot in Woodstock and Observatory. We shot all over the place,” says Adam. “All the street dressing that you see? It required a lot of work from our amazing art department. You've gotta flip the side of the road, and American sidewalks and signage are different. Everything you see had to be created in that regard.”

The end result was all as American as apple pie – which, thanks to the pivotal diner scenes between Nate and Sherry, became "part of the theme of the production," according to Adam.

“There were a lot of pies; it was our whole life!” admits Daniela. “People were getting apple pie tattoos, fake tattoos, glow-in-the-dark tattoos.”

“Our crew tops all have apple pies,” laughs Adam. 

Jack is the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, while Ray is Jack Nicholson’s son. But contrary to Hollywood wild-child lore, Adam says, “It was a shoot where, every weekend, everybody hung out together” – largely at the actual diner they shot in, Kleinsky’s Deli in Sea Point. During the press tour, Ray even gave a shout-out to his driver, Mpumzi Krweqe, noting they’re still in touch. 

Novocaine shot more in sequence than usual because of the extensive and evolving blood stains needed on Nathan’s clothing. Costume designer Danielle Knox tracked 35 distinct injuries, from a punched-out tooth to what Jack calls his favourite effect: the “crispy hotdog hand,” both “unique and gross.”

Prosthetics designer Clinton Aiden Smith of COSMESIS and makeup and hair head of department Christa Schoeman kept the wounds realistic. Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen were both impressed and slightly alarmed by Clinton’s commitment to realism; he showed them actual crime-scene photos to demonstrate how the injuries should look.

To streamline the process once Jack arrived, Clinton had a 3D scan taken of the actor beforehand, then printed around 12 life-sized busts to pre-build the wound prosthetics so they would fit his face and body perfectly.

Novocaine has an 81% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus says the film gets "an adrenaline shot from Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder's considerable charm while finding increasingly demented ways to utilise its concept."

Watch the trailer below. It already has over 12 million views – and features local star Evan Hengst (Wyfie, Suidooster) in action villain mode:

Also check out the official behind-the-scenes video about the gruesome makeup VFX, featuring both Christa and Clinton: