After making his directorial debut with last year's Annabelle Comes Home, successful horror scribe Gary Dauberman has been set to direct New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King's vampire tale Salem’s Lot, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Dauberman had already been tapped to write the Salem's Lot script, but now he has closed a deal to direct the film as well. James Wan is producing with Roy Lee and Mark Wolper.

Published in 1975, King’s book centers on an author who returns to his hometown to write about an abandoned mansion there, only to discover it has a mysterious new owner from Europe. While in town, the writer realizes that the townspeople are being turned into vampires, so he bands together with a ragtag group to battle the bloodsuckers.

Salem's Lot was previously adapted as a 1979 miniseries that was directed by Tobe Hooper, while Larry Cohen directed the 1987 sequel. There was also a two-part made-for-TV movie that aired on TNT in 2004, and starred Rob Lowe. I haven't seen any of these earlier adaptations, and to be honest, I may skip this new one, just as I skipped the Annabelle movies after loathing The Conjuring 2. As much as I love Wan's Saw franchise, I'm just not a fan of the horror movies he produces, so unless the trailer for Salem's Lot wows me, it'll probably be a hard pass from this horror fan.

Dauberman is a favorite of New Line, for whom he wrote three Annabelle movies and both of the It movies, as well as the hit Conjuring 2 spinoff The Nun. His genre movies have grossed more than $2 billion for the studio, and while I may not have seen most of them, I was not a fan of the It franchise, and thought the second film in particular really bastardized King's book. It was just sooo long and sooo painful to watch, and if I were King, I'd be worried about the same thing happening to Salem's Lot.

For Collider's list of the best Stephen King movies, click here.