"Murnau was said to have brought misfortune upon himself by shooting his film in certain sacred places. According to this legend, Faarere, the local chief, is supposed to have warned Murnau; and, curiously enough, Murnau- who liked consulting fortune-tellers and was extremely superstitious, with a strong taste for the supernatural- disregarded his warning. Misfortune then followed misfortune: as he approached a reef that was ‘tabu’, in order to set up the camera there, an enormous wave arose, the canoes were flung against the rocks, two cameras sank to the bottom, and many feet of exposed film were spoiled. Some of the extras fell inexplicably ill, and even the principals, Matahi and Reri, injured themselves on the coral reefs and suffered from slight blood-poisoning. The Chinese cook was drowned in mysterious circumstances.
It had rained a good deal before the scenes of the lovers’ flight by night were shot, and the palm-branch torches didn’t give enough light in the humid atmosphere. So Murnau sent for magnesium flares. After several satisfactory tests had been made, one of the flares suddenly exploded and a young white man was burned in the face and hands. He later recovered.
Moreover, Murnau had built his big bungalow on a former native burial- ground, and set up his cameras on reefs where sacrificial victims used to be exposed. All this was of course ‘tabu’! It was said that an old man called Tuga had cursed Murnau for all these acts of sacrilege. Murnau became more and more nervous, harassed by the work and the obstacles he encountered on all sides.
The sense of anxiety became more and more intolerable. Then one day the old priest Tuga appeared again, and there was a great exorcism scene: ‘Deliver him.O Gods, from darkness. Return to the darkness, your home, and return no more to trouble this man.’ But in spite of all the magic formulas the natives still murmured, and it was only because of Murnau’s great kindness that they didn’t desert."
('Murnau', Lotte H. Eisner, 1964)