Heightening and over-dramatizing kids playtime isn’t a profoundly original concept (such a thing has kind of been at number one for four weeks, in fact), but there’s something special about seeing it done right. In this case a Canadian film called I Declare War has debuted to a nice response at Action Fest, and now a pretty forthright trailer gives the rest of us a taste of the pint-sized combat adventure. It promises children’s fantasies turned into (edit: mostly?) literally-realized war scenarios played out by a batch of compelling child actors. Each and every kid in this trailer seems to have a real penchant for screen acting, at least in the unique scenario this filmmaker threw at them. Take a look.

The filmmakers admitted at the festival that they don’t foresee distribution being an easy thing to come by, much less a release of any scale for their R-rated flick filled with child violence*. That’s the sad truth, but hopefully some brave distributor will give this thing the kind of shot it deserves. With the right push this could catch serious viral attention that would set the stage for a healthy VOD run.

Don’t get me wrong- I’d love to see this play out on a big screen, but this thing’s destiny lies in opening it up to everyone. This THR impression from Action Fest suggests it has some ideas in its head and plays well, so I’d love for it to have a chance to get in front of maximum eyeballs.

If you’re in the mood for more child warfare, be sure and go revisit “Bart The General” from The Simpsons, “Good Times With Weapons” from South Park (a classic in this “genre”), or perhaps this classic viral sensation…

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*Tongue-in-cheek child violence of course. Gritty, super-duper-realistic and meaningful child violence is totally cool ya’ll.

Thanks to Zac O.