20 years on from the original, The Descent director reveals he's "got a few ideas" for a prequel to the hit horror movie

Horror prequels are all the rage nowadays, with titles like The First Omen, Alien: Earth, and Prey recently wowing genre fans as they offered up franchise-fresh stories on both the small and silver screen. With that, director Neil Marshall has come up with "a few ideas" on how to revisit his beloved 2005 flick The Descent – and he's optimistic he can get a follow-up made, too.

"It's something I think would be good to wrap up the story," the filmmaker, who also wrote the movie, told Metro. "So many other franchises have been exploited over the years, but nothing has really happened with The Descent. I've got a few ideas."

Starring Natalie Mendoza, MyAnna Buring (The Witcher), Shauna Macdonald, and more, The Descent centers on grieving thrill seeker Sarah, who, on the one-year anniversary of her daughter and husband's deaths, reluctantly agrees to a spelunking trip with her friends. The group of gals hike up through the mountains and plunge into an uncharted cave system – only to discover that a horde of bloodthirsty beasts is lurking inside the tunnels.

Thanks to its claustrophobic setting, practical effects, and gung-ho performances, it's widely considered one of the best horror movies of the 2000s – and holds an 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, The Descent Part 2, which picks things up where the previous film leaves off, failed to impress critics in the same way, and the series was never revisited.

"I can definitely see it happening," Marshall says of a new installment that fleshes out the scene in which Sarah and co find climbing equipment inside the potholes. "I was always interested in finding out what happened to the miners who went down with the cave first."

For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way.