You've never seen war on-screen quite like this, and you've never heard war on-screen quite like this.

"Warfare" is an unnervingly intense combat film about a group of American soldiers under attack during the war in Iraq. Writer-director Alex Garland ("Civil War," "Annihilation"), working in collaboration with combat veteran and former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, crafts an unnervingly intense sensory experience which is just as impressive to look at as it is to listen to, with Glenn Freemantle's immersive sound design plunging viewers straight into the world of the soldiers during a particularly frightening mission gone awry. Their horrifying screams of agony won't soon be forgotten.

The year is 2006, and a group of U.S. soldiers is at war, stationed in the Ramadi province. Early on we see them gathered around a small TV, hooting and hollering at the sexed up music video for Eric Prydz' Steve Winwood-sampling "Call On Me," but that's the most we ever learn about them as individuals. They're grunts, given no background or home life, nearly anonymous faces tossed into the fire.

Those soldiers include Mendoza, played by "Reservation Dogs'" D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, as well as Elliot Miller (Cosmo Jarvis), Erik (Will Poulter), LT McDonald (Michael Gandolfini), Jake (Charles Melton) and others.

On an empty street we hear gunfire in the distance. A group of soldiers is packed into a residential home, some with eyes on enemies in the distance, surveying for suspicious activity. They see a man on a balcony carrying a gun, looking around a corner. Is he peeking or probing?

It's these kind of distinctions that can mean the difference between life and death. Garland and Mendoza's script is informed entirely by the memories of the soldiers themselves, we learn in a preamble to the movie, which wears its boots on the ground authenticity like a combat medal.

It's not long until the soldiers' compound is under attack, and they radio for tanks to extract them from the compound. Gunfire rains, IEDs explode, and smoke and dust fill the air. Fighter jets whoosh overhead in a flyby "show of force." Body parts are blown off and left in the street, blood spills everywhere. The sounds of bullets whizzing by is nearly drowned out by the echoing cries of human pain.

And that's "Warfare," which is tightly focused in its narrative, simple in its setup and jarringly effective in its execution. Explosions drop out the sound, and viewers hear the ringing in soldiers' ears as it slowly builds back. The intensity never lets up.

Garland is a provocative artist who has taken on the destruction of our environment ("Annihilation"), the dismantling of America ("Civil War"), the problematic nature of the male of the species ("Men") and the troubling integration of AI into our lives ("Ex Machina"). "Warfare" is addition by subtraction: it's his most streamlined movie yet, and its purpose is to show the harrowing experience of modern soldiers at war. Any additional context is provided by the viewer.

As straightforward as its presentation is, a postscript featuring the real-life soldiers (many of their faces blurred out in photos) side-by-side with their film counterparts feels like an act of self-congratulation by the filmmakers. It's one false note in an otherwise uncompromising distillation of the horrors of combat. War is hell, and "Warfare" gets viewers so close they can feel the heat from the flames.

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'WARFARE'

Grade: A-

MPA rating: R (for intense war violence and bloody/grisly images, and language throughout)

Running time: 1:35

How to watch: In theaters April 11

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