Horror historian David J. Skal has argued that the early Universal horror films were, in part, a response to the trauma experienced as a result of World War I. In The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, Skal wrote:
A good deal of this book has dealt with the long shadow of war reflected and transformed in the shared anxiety rituals we call monster movies. Wars tend not to resolve themselves, culturally, until years after the combat stops. The same is true of economic depressions, fatal epidemics, political witch-hunts — the traumas can linger for decades.
Other commentators have seen the pessimistic influence of 9/11 in horror as a response to the damage to the national psyche. In addition, horror films as well as science fiction have often recognized that human beings have a penchant for tribalism, destruction of the other, and self-annihilation. TheoFantastique wishes everyone a happy Memorial Day as we remember those who have given their lives in battle, even as we hope that we will one day move beyond our tendencies toward war.
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