Novocaine is stunningly sick — and repeats one of Hollywood's worst mistakes

CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Point a magnifying solid 1 twelvemonth earlier John Hughes's Home Alone, and you conscionable mightiness find René Manzor's Deadly Games: Code Santa Claus. Also pursuing a latchkey small lad thwarting location invaders with ingenious booby traps during the holidays, the 2 films were akin capable for Manzor to endanger Hughes with a suit implicit stealing his idea. 

But erstwhile the particulate settled, determination was 1 glaring difference. While Home Alone's zany household classical went connected to walk astir of the '90s arsenic the then-highest grossing drama of each time, the French Deadly Games spent a paltry 1 week successful Parisian theatres, earlier puttering disconnected to location video. 

What explains the vastly antithetic reception, for what — connected the page, astatine slightest — are incredibly akin movies? Well, you tin commencement with the information that Home Alone's paint-can swinging deathtraps are astatine slightest played for laughs; Deadly Games's maze of horrors doesn't fto its assemblage disconnected the hook conscionable due to the fact that it's Christmas. From stabbings, to shootings, to artifact grenades filled with existent gunpowder, the lone crushed you'd telephone idiosyncratic a "wet bandit" present is for however overmuch fake humor they whitethorn person accidentally near the acceptable inactive covered in. 

So erstwhile judging the fortunes of the adjacent much violent, though amazingly Christmassy Novocaine, determination whitethorn beryllium crushed to worry. The Jack Quaid enactment conveyance arrives astir arsenic acold from its vacation mounting arsenic imaginable, portion the Saw-esque gore whitethorn marque the rom-com astatine its bosom a no-go arsenic acold arsenic day movies are concerned. 

But if we're conscionable judging connected merit, ne'er fear; Novocaine is, successful a word, amazing. Though if we're utilizing two, it would beryllium amazingly gross.

WATCH | Novocaine trailer:

To beryllium fair, that second statement — and a perchance ill-advised conceit — bash enactment against the movie. Following the aptly named Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid), Novocaine uses the historically fraught Hollywood look of misinterpreting a niche aesculapian malady for a spot of taste commentary. 

It's acold from unsocial successful doing so. Throw a chromatic down metallic surface hallways and you're bound to deed an example, similar Robin Williams's Jack, oregon Brad Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button liberally adapting rapid-aging illness progeria into a "carpe diem" crippled instrumentality for their characters. 

Novocaine opts for an adjacent rarer information for its premise. Here, Caine has CIPA (congenital insensitivity to symptom with anhidrosis). Just similar it says connected the tin, that means our different mild-mannered adjunct slope manager is impervious to the pokes, prods and punctures that would permission the remainder of america howling.

Impervious, astatine least, to the pain. As we larn from lonely online conversations with his lone friend, Roscoe (Jacob Batalon), and the caller workfellow he's rapidly falling for, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), helium tin perfectly inactive get injured. 

Because of that, he's lived his beingness successful cautious fear. He ne'er chews coagulated foods — to debar accidentally biting disconnected his ain tongue. He installs a somesthesia people connected his ablution handle, since helium wouldn't beryllium capable to consciousness if the h2o was blistery capable to scald. And he's spent his beingness arsenic a homebody, conscionable to debar the hazard of stepping connected a nail. After all, he'd lone recognize erstwhile his footwear filled up with humor — thing helium horrifyingly knows from experience.

But erstwhile a radical of Santa-disguised robbers (remember, it's Christmas!) battle his bank, termination the manager and instrumentality Sherry arsenic a hostage, Caine and his uniquely disgusting superpower get the greenish airy to go. 

The motivation of not letting fearfulness basal successful the mode of happiness hardly gets its footing with Caine yet trying coagulated nutrient ("That's what pastry is?!" helium shouts successful 1 of the movie's astir watchable moments) earlier he's disconnected to the races. He's soon dunking his manus successful blistery fryer grease to triumph gunfights, and taking arrows to — then, sickeningly, done — the genu successful bid to stab unfortunate goons connected the different end.

And helium caps it each disconnected with a blood-gushing coup de grâce apt to permission you fist pumping with 1 hand, and shielding your eyes with the other. 

It's a consistently ridiculous, but consistently committed look that knows however to support upping the ante portion inactive delivering the goods. Quaid's surefooted straight-man timing keeps the crippled some grounded and ridiculous capable to marque you forgive the many, galore implausibilities of a movie that doesn't privation you to instrumentality it excessively seriously.

And the inventively grotesque body-horror dilatory increasing nether his progressively destroyed suit works amazingly well, contempt being small much than a gimmick. That's because, from a publication standpoint, it's tied truthful firmly to some the crippled and to Caine's quality evolution. It's done truthful efficiently successful fact, it's hard to kick that Novocaine is fundamentally conscionable a operation of 2 of this year's worst movies (The Monkey and Love Hurts), but that it's good.    

Sick metaphors

That said, if I was professional and Illness arsenic Metaphor writer Susan Sontag, I mightiness kick that Novocaine is simply a cleanable illustration of a ubiquitous literate impulse: The writerly instinct to usage sickness arsenic a symbolic practice of a character's motivations. 

Or much usually, erstwhile a character's sickness is utilized arsenic a metaphor for their deepest idiosyncratic failings. Their quality — oregon nonaccomplishment to — triumph implicit that sickness past becomes a judgement of their ain volition and strength. And contempt the information that unwellness should travel with nary motivation oregon quality judgments astatine all, it yet becomes however we deliberation astir the sick extracurricular of stories. 

It's a real, and occasionally damaging, tendency. It's wherefore casting crab arsenic a "battle" which a diligent either wins oregon loses is progressively seen arsenic a faux pas. It's wherefore leprosy's transportation with the unclean, moving arsenic acold backmost arsenic the Bible, saw Hawaiian officials walk a period dumping the afflicted connected an different uninhabited peninsula, contempt the illness being precise lowly contagious. 

Look nary further than Thomas Mann's Death successful Venice for cholera's misrepresentation: There, sickness of the assemblage has been metaphorically tied to sickness of the psyche truthful successfully it's led full communities to garbage treatment. It has justified argumentation failures, romanticized suffering and helped alteration some asymptomatic disease-carrier Typhoid Mary and unwilling aesculapian probe diligent Henrietta Lax into simplified symbols for quality suffering, much than analyzable radical who truly lived. 

That's decidedly a communicative laziness Novocaine falls prey to. But determination are astatine slightest 2 defences shielding it from unsafe territory. The archetypal is its rarity: speech from a azygous occurrence of House and a similar, though unrelated information shown successful 2010's Kick-Ass, CIPA doesn't person overmuch of a practice way record.

And fixed that its real-life incidence is astir 1 successful 125 cardinal people, the information hasn't (and apt won't) summation capable portrayal to person audiences demanding CIPA superheroes support them time to day.

The 2nd is that outrageous, kill-of-the-week goriness. Novocaine precise quickly, and precise effectively, presents itself arsenic thing that shouldn't beryllium taken seriously. And portion the stomach-churning lengths it goes to whitethorn support immoderate assemblage members retired of the theatre, the ones who enactment are successful for a treat. 

That is, if they support from covering their eyes done the worst of it.