Was offered the opportunity to direct Zombie (1979), but was not keen on directing a horror film and asked for a budget which the producers considered unrealistic. They then gave Lucio Fulci the opportunity to direct it. After the film's success, the same producers approached Castellari to direct The Last Shark (1981), a low budget horror movie about a shark attack. The movie did well at the box office (it made $18 million in the U.S.A.), but was successfully sued for plagiarizing Jaws (1975) and subsequently pulled from theaters.