The period between the 1870s and the 1930s saw a surge of occultist ideas and practices across the Western world. Although the history of occultism goes back to antiquity, a sharp upturn in public interest in the last quarter of the nineteenth century suggests that the occult revival constitutes a characteristically modern phenomenon. For philosopher Richard von Coudenhove-Karlegi, enthusiasm for the occult was indicative of “modern romanticism,” which also underlay other zeitgeist sentiments like nostalgia, exoticism, and faith in the future. All expressed longing for other, remote, and mysterious worlds and sprang from anguish in the face of modernity's concrete, cold, and pragmatic materialism, a feature that machine technology epitomized. The techno-romantic paradigm constitutes a response to the same affliction, yet paradoxically seeks to attain the intangible, specifically through technology. What concerns me here are the intersections between techno-romantic and occultist lines of thought. Although both construe the spiritual as the essential feature of human existence, occultism's quest for invisible realities and eternal truths through the pursuit of ancient hermetic wisdom did not specifically pertain to machine technology, and techno-romantic perspectives neither constituted a systematic doctrine nor were they expressly concerned with mysterious forces. Nonetheless, in cinema, occultist and techno-romantic approaches proved highly compatible.

In the decades around 1900, fascination with the occult permeated all layers of European society. Many artists, including filmmakers, engaged with occultist thought and practices.