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Actor Douglas Vermeeren lighting up the indie circuit in 2023.

This year has been an eventful year for filmmaker/actor Douglas Vermeeren who stars in a number of independent feature films throughout North America.

Currently, on the Film Festival circuit, the compelling horror anthology feature Tenants recently premiered at the LA Film Festival, winning Best Horror Anthology. It isn’t the first win for the feature, which also took home the coveted Best Picture award at the LA Crime & Horror Festival.

Directed by Buz Wallick, Sean Messer, and Johnathan Louis Lewis for Exit 19 Productions and Wallick Productions, Tenants takes viewers on a unique horror anthology in an apartment building with bizarre situations that provoke several unusual supernatural suspense stories. Filmed in Los Angeles, Douglas has the role of Leonard, the manager of this strange apartment building - a position that has put him in dangerous situations that end in tragedy.

Of the film, Douglas said: "Tenants is a film that brings to mind many of the great horror anthologies from the past like Stephen King's Cat's Eye, Twilight Zone: the Movie, and Creepshow. However, Tenants takes a very unique approach in how the stories are all interconnected. That's something that hasn't been done before in this way for an anthology.”

Elsewhere in the indie world, Douglas plays Billy Lachance, the villain in the Canadian feature film Jack Knife, now in post-production. After Billy’s brother is accidentally killed and his drugs are stolen, he embarks on a determined path of revenge.

Filmed in and around Toronto, Jack Knife is a co-production with Adam Jack’s Eat Your Eggs Production and Jason Lumpish & Erica Sherwood’s Jarico films. Multiple award-winning filmmaker Adam Jack (The Lurker, An All-American Fairytale) wrote the screenplay and directed the film. Erica Sherwood (Fight! A Kind of Wonderful Thing) and Douglas star alongside first time teen actors Tivon Charles and Payton Mills.

In Jack Knife, a fun afternoon of fishing turns frightening when a young black brother and sister are attacked in the woods by a drifter. While fighting him off, the brother accidentally kills their would-be molester with a jackknife. The film deals with many of the current race issues in our world and an incredible case of mistaken identity.

Douglas states,” This was a very special film to work on. It was very strong in its portrayal of the racial challenges, stereotypes and misunderstandings that so often happen in our society today."

In the feature Fresh Meat, a group of influencers break into an abandoned prison and release an evil that has intentionally been locked away far from the public and now no one will be safe. Douglas plays Sherriff Bellamy in the film, who is dedicated to keeping the influencers out of the prison and when that fails, he must decide how to contain the evil which has escaped. Produced by Pageman Productions and directed by Daniel Turres the film is currently in post-production. Other actors include Mika Amonsen (Thanksgiving, Impulse, Reacher, Designated Survivor), Jorja Cadence (Priscilla, Reacher, Rabbit Hole, Sex/Life), and Hannah Galway (Sex/Life, Under the Banner of Heaven, Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities).

“Fresh Meat was a very bloody project. It is a project that definitely lives up to the name. What you see on the label is definitely a reflection of what you experience in the project. Fresh Meat is destined to become one of the classics in horror slasher films right up there with Friday the 13th, Halloween and others,” says Douglas.

Also in post-production, Black Creek is a feature directed by Shannon Lanier for the production team of CRRC Productions and the Marlowe-Pugnette Co. Inc. filmed in Tuscan, Arizona. A sheriff's sister seeks revenge against the terrifying leader of a group of outlaws after discovering he brutally murdered her brother, his wife, and other family members in a gritty southwestern town.

Douglas plays Hank Winslow, a slimy corrupt businessman in the town of Black Creek and the right-hand man of the sadistic villain, Damien Sinclair (Richard Norton), who runs the gambling and bare-knuckle-brawling ring of Black Creek. Hank Winslow has a very special and unique position in this martial arts film. He runs the fighting ring and plays a central part in antagonizing the fights.

Martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock (The Martial Arts Kid, In Search of the Last Action Heroes, Diary of a Lunatic) who has been featured in over 70 films is joined by many legends of the martial arts film world including Don "The Dragon" Wilson (Batman Forever, Ring of Fire), Benny Urquidez (Con Air, Grosse Point Blank, The Contract, 1408), R. Marcus Taylor, (Straight Outta Compton, Baby Driver, Luke Cage) and Keith Cooke (Mortal Kombat, Alita: Battle Angel) in the film.

Not one to slow down, Douglas is in talks with international filmmakers for a number of new feature films in pre-production alongside some very recognizable names - so stay tuned for what’s next for this talented filmmaker.