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I don't really subscribe to the idea that popular horror movies mirror the collective anxiety of the times in any sense greater than perhaps the most broadest strokes. However, if I did, I would not even agree that Democrat and Republican administrations have a substantial effect on the popular themes of horror. One thing I might be willing to grant is that in times or in climates of economic prosperity, maybe horror isn't taken that seriously, since there is greater economic security. As an example, if there is ever a horror movie for the Clinton years, it would be Scream, which is more interested in being clever and self-aware than truly horrific. I would say if there if there was ever a horror film for the W years, it would be the Dawn of the Dead remake, a movie with a lot more chaos and a much more threatening scenario. I wouldn't go a lot further than that, and I wouldn't know what films to pin as definitively symbolic of other presidencies. You are forced to do a lot of cherry-picking to support that idea, and you would also be forced to overlook a lot of examples that contradict that idea. Simply identifying a zeitgeist and relating it to horror is a task 'fraught with peril' in itself.
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