Personally, I think zombie movies reflect 'fear of societal collapse' more than 'fear over the absence of technology'. (The absence of technology is certainly part of a societal collapse, but societal collapse is more than just the absence of technology.)<p>Sudden, unpredictable, uncontrollable events - large stock market fluctuations, 9/11, the housing crisis, almost certainly the upcoming sovereign debt crisis - have made people very uneasy.<p>Zombie movies give people an opportunity to think about what they'd do in a societal breakdown, reassuring them on some level - since unlike a sovereign debt crisis, the zombie apocalypse isn't going to happen. Thinking about barricading the windows and aiming for the head is fun; thinking about total market failure is horrifying.<p>There's also a certain segment of the population, the underclass that's being left behind, who sees nothing in our society for them and would <i>love</i> a hard reset. For them, zombie movies feed into happy fantasies about their rugged gun-toting individualism. (The hero-protagonist in a zombie movie is never, say, a stockbroker from New York.)