Some would say that Christopher Nolan has already directed a horror film: 2023’s atomic bomb epic Oppenheimer.

While Nolan is one of those people, he also said that he is ready to direct a more traditional horror feature. Nolan, speaking at the British Film Institute on Thursday, said that he is interested in the genre and would eventually like to be behind the camera for one.

“I think horror films are very interesting because they depend on very cinematic devices,” he said. “It’s really about a visceral response to things. So at some point, I’d love to make a horror film. But I think a really good horror film requires a really exceptional idea — and those are few and far between,” Nolan said in the interview.

Nolan hasn’t determined what story he’d like to tell through the vehicle of a blood-and-guts flick, but he’s open to ideas.

“I haven’t found the story that lends itself to that. But I think it’s a very interesting genre from a cinematic point of view. It’s also one of the few genres where — the studios make a lot of these films — and they’re films that have a lot of bleakness, a lot of abstraction. They have a lot qualities that Hollywood is generally very resistant to putting into films, but that’s a genre where it’s allowable,” he continued.

Nolan himself admits that Oppenheimer, at least in part, could be considered a horror film; in fact it is a real-life horror story of a man who creates a weapon of mass destruction and then must watch as it is used in the manner it was intended.

“Certainly Oppenheimer has elements of horror — which I definitely think is appropriate for the subject matter,” he said, adding, “the middle of the film is very heavily based on the heist genre, and the third act of the film is the courtroom drama.”

“That’s the fun thing with genre — you get to play with a lot of different areas whereas in different type of film you really wouldn’t be allowed to”, he said.