Do you remember Antonio Sabato Jr? He’s got top billing here in Shark Hunter and I’m sure there was a point in time where that meant something. We’re well past the prime of Sabato and his soap opera runs but I suppose in 2001 there was still some lingering appreciation for him. Whatever it was that got him the starring role here though is absent.
This isn’t Sabato’s fault though. Hell, it’s none of the actor’s fault, even if there is a good deal of overacting going on. It’s because Shark Hunter is an incredibly dark film, as in shot without light, not dark subject matter.
The opening of the film seems like it is shot on a soundstage/pool with a boat surrounded by fog and with very little light. That choice to shoot things in darkness, likely to minimize effects shots and make things look murky, will stick through the entire film. What I find weird about this all though is that the actual sets look good, clearly reused from a sci-fi space film but high quality.
As for the plot, it’s the standard stuff we’ve seen before. A megalodon has returned to cause havoc in the sea. Sabato’s character, a marine scientist of some sort, has an interesting tie to the meg as he thinks his family was killed by one, on that boat shot in the dark pool. He’s tasked with finding out what the monster is, as everyone besides him doesn’t believe it’s a megalodon shark. When his team finally believes him, the crew must go about trying to catch or kill the big guy and well, as usual, that doesn’t go as planned.
It’s not great but it’s perfectly watchable, provided you turn the brightness up on your television.
2*
Musings of a Grouch 
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