Dutch filmmaker Nico van den Brink, who wrote and directed the short, will direct the feature and have a "story by" credit.

The short, which premiered in July at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, centered on a woman who comes home to her large apartment tenement. Watching the news, she discovers that her neighbors — a mother and her two kids — have been killed, but then enters creep-zone territory when she begins to hear the laughter and running of the munchkins.

New Line will next hire a writer to flesh out the short’s concept into a feature.

The steps the company is taking mirror the process it undertook to make its 2016 hit Lights Out. New Line picked up the Swedish short by then-newbie David F. Sandberg, pairing him with Wan to develop a feature version that he went on direct. The movie was made for under $5 million and scared up almost $150 million worldwide. Sandberg, under Wan’s wing, then went on to helm this summer’s New Line hit Annabelle: Creation and is now prepping Shazam! for the division.

Van den Brink is an award-winning director who studied at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Film Academy. He has helmed a number of short films and commercials, but Sweet Tooth will represent his first feature.

Horror is a specialty of New Line, the only studio arm that continues to consistently serve up the genre. It is heading into its second weekend with $151 million domestically already under its belt and after shattering numerous box-office records. Annabelle: Creation, with a budget of $15 million, has earned over $281 million worldwide and is still in release.

Van den Brink is repped by Good Fear and Jeff Frankel of McKuin Frankel Whitehead.