We were joined on the Popternative show by the Novocaine directing duo, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. Best known for their many thriller films, including 2019’s Villains with Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe, the two are up-and-coming, and Novocaine marks the duo’s second outing with Paramount Pictures, which looks to be the most hard-hitting action movie yet.
Novocaine stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Lou Beatty Jr., Evan Hengst, Conrad Kemp, and Jacob Batalon.
The film sees everyman Nathan Caine, an introvert who’s got congenital insensitivity to pain, finding himself in a dangerous scenario. After his girlfriend, Sherry, gets taken hostage during a bank robbery, Nate must gain the confidence he needs all while trying to save the girl of his dreams.
Given that Novocaine is R-rated, there would be an incredible amount of blood and gore all throughout these action sequences. Talking about the practical effects, Olsen spoke more on how they both decided to present those prosthetic effects given the film’s brutality.
“I think it was really important for us to have this movie have as many practical effects as possible,” Olsen began. “A, because that just looks better, and B, because we knew that we were going to be showing so much of this kind of close-up.”
“So to really sell that, you wanted those injuries to be as gruesome as possible. That was kind of our rule of thumb. We always wanted to show that injury, like, maybe a half beat longer than another movie might, where it’s just a little bit more, but not so much that it grosses people out and they want to leave the theater,” Olsen said.
Furthermore, Burk recalled how some of their previous films played a role in influencing some of the creative decisions that went into these effects.
“We had pulled some fingernails off of fingers before in our second movie, Stake Land II. So that prosthetic to do was not particularly intimidating,” Berk said. “I think that we might have pulled more fingernails off of fingers than any other directors at this point, which is a strange award to have.”
Outside of their own works, Berk and Olsen were heavily inspired by films like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon in developing Novocaine. However, there was one horror-action film that was recently released that gave them the best ideas.
“In terms of the action itself, a movie that we looked at a lot was Upgrade, because in Upgrade, there’s a shtick to those fight scenes,” Olsen explained. “His body is doing one thing, and his face is doing another. He’s fighting a guy, but he’s apologizing at the same time. And so there was a very similar thing that we were doing here in Novocaine, where Jack had to sort of learn how to disconnect the wince reflex from his body. He had to be able to get punched.”
Given how Berk and Olsen were inspired by Quaid’s performance as Hughie in The Boys, Novocaine may feel very much like their take on a superhero movie. When asked about what superheroes they’d want to adapt to the big screen, the duo thought of a few characters they’d hope to bring to life again.
“I loved Silver Surfer as a kid. I loved Watchmen, you know, but obviously that’s been done a couple times,” Olsen mentioned.
“We always say Constantine is really, really awesome but there’s already a sequel that’s in development or maybe it’s already been shot,” Berk added. “It’s a little tricky. I mean, I think there’s a reason, of course, that the air is being let out of the balloon a little bit on all the superhero stuff, just because I think we’ve pretty sufficiently mined the major storylines at this point as a society. Maybe if this does really well, we’ll get an opportunity to make our superhero movie and we’ll let you know!”
Watch the full conversation with Dan Berk and Robert Olsen down below.
Novocaine releases in theaters on Friday, March 14.
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Christopher Gallardo is a freelance entertainment writer and critic. While not running The Reel Roller, Chris can be found writing reviews and breakdowns on all things films and TV. Outside of entertainment writing, he’s currently taking classes for a Bachelor’s of Science with a minor in Digital Media & Journalism. Plus, he loves Percy Jackson, animated films and shows, and Fallout! Follow Christopher on Instagram & X.