We spoke with director Johannes Roberts this week about The Strangers: Prey at Night. We’ll bring you the news on his current film leading up to its March 9 release, but first, we got to look ahead to his sequel to 47 Meters Down. After sharks terrorized Mandy Moore and Claire Holt in a cage, 48 Meters Down will be about a cave diving disaster.

“If I had to pitch it in a very simple way, I would describe it as The Descent underwater,” Roberts said referring to Neil Marshall’s classic horror movie. “So it will be six or seven people trapped in the caves in Brazil, an underwater city.”

The numbering of the franchise is clever, but it’s not just a matter of going one meter deeper.

“Ha, yeah, one meter more terrifying,” Roberts laughed. “It’ll all be cave diving which is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. I trained to do cave diving while I was shooting 47 in the Dominican Republic. It’s beyond terrifying so it just seemed like a really great idea to make that the sequel.”

So it was literally his extracurricular activities making the movie that gave him the idea for the sequel!

“Myself and the line producer would go on weekends,” Roberts said. “I’m sure we weren’t allowed to for insurance because it’s the most dangerous thing in the world, and we would go and dive in these great cave systems. It was just like yeah, this has to be a movie.”

Due to the dangers of cave diving, 48 Meters Down will construct a set in a water tank, similar to the filming of 47 Meters Down.

“We’ll have to do all of it [in a tank],” Roberts said. “You could not, I would not want to bring a camera crew or actors into a cave system. It is the most dangerous thing in the world. We would build everything. Maybe some exteriors when they first go in.”

Before diving into (see what I did there?) 48 Meters Down, Roberts will film another horror movie, Thirteen O’Clock.

“It’s all set during Day of the Dead and it involves coffins and being buried alive,” Robert said.

Thirteen O’Clock won’t be a single location like Buried though.

“No, it isn’t. It’s all set in Los Angeles and goes all across Los Angeles.”

The Strangers: Prey at Night opens March 9. Look for more news from our Johannes Roberts in March!