According to him, the film takes the name "pleasure dome" from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's atmospheric 1816 poem Kubla Khan.

Anger was inspired to make the film after attending a Halloween party called "Come as your Madness" hosted by artist Renate Druks.

The original edition soundtrack is a complete performance of Glagolitic Mass by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854–1928).

Crowley's concept of a ritual masquerade party where attendees dress as gods and goddesses served as a direct inspiration for the film.

Near the end, scenes from Anger's 1949 film Puce Moment are interpolated into the layered images and faces.