Beat Records is proud to present the very first complete edition of the soundtrack to the film Shark Hunter, the 1979 film directed by Enzo G. Castellari with superstar Franco Nero as Mike Di Donato, an Italian-American with a mysterious past marked by a terrible bereavement from which he is probably fleeing and who lives the life of the noble savage, complete with his own Friday, played by Mirta Miller, the splendid Argentine actress with a very prolific career, especially in genre cinema.
Obviously there are many differences from Defoe's Crusoe. In this modern story, which essentially only initially takes up the aesthetic connotations of the aforementioned novel, with the protagonist's apparent attempt at isolation in contact with nature, there are very current elements such as the fight against bullies, technology, the domineering actions of an unspecified organization, for which Mike himself worked in the past, and the search for underwater loot, inside a plane at the bottom of the sea, which only the protagonist seems able to recover.
Mike seeks the help of Acapulco (Jorge Luke) to recover the treasure that is submerged approximately 120 meters below sea level, obviously along the way countless inconveniences and hostilities to resolve, all in a marine context where his alpha superpredator seems to be a constant presence.
Worth noting is the director's notable role in the role of a killer who operates in the background of the plots of the villains, or presumed villains, of the moment, Ramon (Werner Pochat), Donovan (Michael Forest), Gomez (Eduardo Fajardo) and their henchmen.
The soundtrack was composed by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis at a very specific moment in time: 1979 was the year in which the disco phenomenon exploded worldwide, influencing every creative field with its incredible energy, and the Maestri brothers were no exception. The opening credits burst into life from the very first sequence, where they display an incredible ability to seamlessly transition the music from the quiet scenes on the beach to the more dynamic scenes where Mike launches himself into a shark hunt.
Tight rhythm, nervous guitars, explosive wind instruments, artfully synchronized breaks and a general musical tension that acts like a suction cup for the viewer, glueing them with their faces and ears to the screen.
In the numerous orchestrations of this theme, present in the soundtrack, there's truly a bit of everything. Sometimes the Sylvester-esque rhythm section, sometimes the Sister Sledge-esque strings, sometimes the Bee Gees-style wind instruments, but damn, they're the De Angelis brothers, and you can hear them in the accents, the details, the overall style. If I had them here now, in front of me as I write, I'd hug them for yet another badass emotion that emerges from this time capsule.
Two other musical matrices come to the aid of the score, one for the more comedic and relaxed scenes, suitable for describing a certain light-hearted everyday life and a series of more tense comments often achieved with the support of electronics and some auxiliary instruments.
In December 2025, during Music Day Rome, in the presence of Guido De Angelis and Enzo Castellari, we presented the soundtrack in the format of a very rare and exclusive first limited edition on vinyl of 50 copies autographed by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, as well as by the director.
On that occasion, Enzo reiterated something he's never hidden: his enormous love for this film, and it's not hard to see the reasons: its direction, as always remarkable and inspired; the presence of one of his most faithful followers, Franco Nero, in the cast; the story treated with great taste and flair; the Caribbean setting; the intrigue; the underwater adventures; and the presence of one of the ocean's most fascinating predators, the shark, directed practically like a real actor in countless scenes, including several underwater hand-to-hand, or rather, hand-to-fin, fights.
But I am deeply convinced that the main reason for my affection for Enzino, as my father called him, lies in the epic scene of the beating of Franco Nero by the character played by Castellari, aided by his thugs.
Who knows how many times the director must have playfully teased his longtime friend for the, so to speak, alarm clocks he managed to give him on the set of Shark Hunter?
For genre film lovers, this is an extremely cult scene that crowns a never banal film with a crazy soundtrack that reminds us, once again, why we still love that kind of cinema and the music of Guido and Maurizio De Angelis so much.
The LP is available in color (blue). Graphic layout by Daniele De Gemini, mastering by Enrico De Gemini.
Limited edition of 450 copies!
A Side
01. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 1 4:05
02. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 2 2:18
03. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 3 3:13
04. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 4 1:34
05. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 5 2:08
06. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 6 2:35
07. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 7 1:59
B side
01. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 15 1:34
02. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 16 4:39
03. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 17 1:24
04. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 18 1:30
05. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 19 2:22
06. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 20 3:13
07. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 21 2:01
08. The Shark Hunter - Seq. 22 0:54
Total Length: 36:03
