As promised about an hour ago, here are five of my favorites from my previous two trips to Austin for film festivals:

FANTASTIC FEST 2010

Stake Land (available on DVD), a road movie about a makeshift group trying to survive in a post-vampire apocalypse America. If you like The Walking Dead, you’ll like this.

Undocumented (now on IFC On Demand, finally), a truly scary portrait of a group of ultra “patriots” out to stop illegal immigration by any means necessary, as seen by a group of do-gooder documentarians who lose control of their movie.

Rubber (out on DVD), the fourth-wall bashing tale of a homicidal car tire. I still have no idea how the director got a Buster Keaton-style deadpan comedy performance out of an intimate object. Wholly original, totally riveting filmmaking.

SXSW 2011

Xavier Gens’ The Divide (coming eventually), in which a group of ordinary city dwellers turn into predators and prey when trapped together in a bunker following a 9-11 style attack. Not for the faint of heart.

Kill LIst (coming eventually), which starts out as a kitchen sink dysfunctional family drama, turns into an assassin buddy road movie, and then takes a sharp turn towards the uncanny in its final act.

There you have it, five must-see genre films. Here’s hoping I come back from Fantastic Fest 2011 with quite a few more…