TAKING tea and scones in the peaceful surroundings of the Dorchester hotel in London is not a place you expect to find Neil Marshall.

His first two films have led you to expect the sound of screaming and buckets of blood and guts rather than the gentle chinking of china tea cups and cakes piled high with jam and cream.

The Newcastle film-maker is there to talk about his second film, The Descent, a gruesome and gory horror movie in which half a dozen female cave explorers are trapped underground and menaced by the unwelcoming creatures living down there. It followed his well-received directorial debut, Dog Soldiers, featuring rampaging werewolves menacing a squad of soldiers on manoeuvres in Scotland.

He confesses to being "incredibly happy" with the response to the cinema release of The Descent in the summer, although it wasn't without its problems - notably, opening the week of the London bus and underground bombings.

"There's no way to say it without sounding slightly callous but the timing could have been better," says Marshall. "That did affect the opening weekend. Everything was going for it, but it found its feet and ended up doing very well. I was pleased because it was a step up from Dog Soldiers."

It's now discovering another audience on DVD. "With horror films, they work two ways. They can be a great shared experience or watched in the dark on your own on a Friday night," he explains.

While many British directors tell horror stories about financing their movies, Marshall reveals that once the producers came on board everything went very smoothly for The Descent. Compared to most films, the time from script to screen was quick.

"I thoroughly enjoyed that process and kept up the momentum. There's nothing worse than making a film and waiting two years for it to be on the screen," he says.

He feels The Descent is different from, rather than better than, Dog Soldiers, although both slot into the horror genre. His first film was played more for laughs, The Descent is played for sheer terror.

Even making the film proved a good time. He approached cautiously the thought of directing half a dozen actresses, although the experience turned out to be "an absolute blast".

But Marshall doesn't want to be known solely as a director of horror movies and intends to move away from the genre, at least for the time being.

"I'd like to make a break from horror. I'm not going to desert it forever because I have too much of a passion for scaring people. But I don't want to get bored of it. After a few other films I can return with renewed passion," he says.

"I don't want to get pigeonholed as a horror film-maker, but I don't want to disappoint the hardcore fans. I don't seek out other genres, I seek out other stories. I never said that I'll just make horror films. I have hundreds of stories to tell. Because as the film fanatic I am, I watch all sorts of films and respond to all sorts of films."

As usual, he has several projects on the go. One called Eagle's Nest - being pitched as "Remains Of The Day meets Die Hard" - is a Second World War thriller. He's also writing two feature scripts, a sci-fi adventure called Doomsday and an historical adventure about which he can say no more except that it's for Celador, which helped finance The Descent.

Directing other people's material doesn't seem to appeal to him. After Dog Soldiers, a lot of really bad horror scripts came through, as well as an offer to direct Messiah 3, in BBC1's gory police series.

"It might have appealed but I was in the middle of writing The Descent. I had to make a choice of a nice little earner or following what my true passion was," he says. "I'm a film director, not a television director. They are two very different disciplines and I didn't want to get my wires crossed."

His cinematic influences are wide and varied, taking in such directors as Howard Hawks, John Ford, Sam Peckinpah and North-East-born Ridley Scott. Horror-wise, his hero is Hallowe'en director John Carpenter.

He's actually been more swayed by specific films than individual directors. Unsurprising, considering his first two features, the titles fall into the horror category - The Shining, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead and Zombie Flesh Eaters.

And he adds, with a touch of pride, that if you look at a movie like Zombie Flesh Eaters today you'll be surprised at how little blood and guts there are compared to modern day horrors like The Descent.

l The Descent (18) is available to buy on Pathe.