Oh, yeah. I Am Legend, unlike previous Hollywood tellings of that story (and the original book), is all about a profound change in the world (thought to be near miraculous) which goes horribly wrong within just a few years.
Meanwhile, all across America, people are stocking up on necessities, getting ready for the zombies.
Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil, I Am Legend et al.
I have a very, very dark idea about the "zombie meme". I think it's a shock image from the (near) future which causes ripples of perception to move back through time.
This is similar to CS Lewis' perception of the Crucifixion, which he described propagating backward through time to other "pagan" societies as "nice dreams", only on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum.
I don't think the dead are going to return to life and attack the living, but I do think the visual and functional behavior of the masses in the cities will be too similar to dismiss. Diseased, starving, ragged, aggressive, senseless, parasitic. Like today's Democrats but without foodstamps.
