DOTA: Nakakabaliw (lost Filipino drama film about video game addiction; 2014)
Theatrical release poster
Status: Lost
DOTA: Nakakabaliw (lit. DOTA Drives You Crazy) is a 2014 Filipino drama film directed by Dyzal M. Damun and produced by Manchester Films, starring teen actors James Matthew, Joyce Ching and comedienne Whitney Tyson (erroneously billed as "Whitney Tyzon").[1] As the name suggests, the film decries the supposed dangers of online video games, particularly the multiplayer online battle arena Defense of the Ancients which gained popularity in the Philippines in the 2010s, and revolves around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students become obsessed with playing DotA— and become addicted and involved in various crimes.
The film was widely ridiculed in Filipino internet circles both for its absurd and moralistic premise as well as its highly amateurish production values,[2][3] especially considering its wide theatrical release,[4] particularly with the poster with badly-cut out pictures of the lead actors apparently pulled from their social media profiles and a poorly-cropped screenshot of DotA in the background. Some netizens compared it unfavourably to the 1936 American exploitation film Reefer Madness, which was initially released as a social guidance film portraying the purported horrors of recreational consumption of cannabis but later gained a cult following as an exploitation movie, while others—in a textbook example of Poe's law—wondered if this was an (overblown) class project or a purposely bad satirical comedy;[2] the film's director, Dyzal M. Damun, also helmed a few other low-budget action and exploitation films with similarly poor production values.[5]
Availability
Despite it being released relatively recently, only a trailer and a theatrical release poster of the film are known to exist as the full movie is still unaccounted for.[6]
Trailer
Gallery
Photo of the film's cast posing in front of an alternate poster for the film
