Before he made his name figuring out creative ways for zombies to stalk people, or for s erial killers to dismember people, or for cannibal piranhas to eat people, Greg Nicotero had plans to eventually take over his father’s medical practice . Then George Romero called.

It was 198 1. Romero, who had galvanized the horror genre with gritty, socially aware films like “Night of the Living Dead,” was filming “Creepshow” near Nicotero’s home in Pittsburgh. Stephen King, who already had multiple hit novels to his name, had written the script, his first. The makeup and effects master Tom Savini, famous in the business for his work on movies like “Dawn of the Dead” and “Friday the 13th,” was doing the blood and guts and monsters.

Nicotero, who was still in high school, had stayed in touch with Romero, a fellow Pittsburgher, since meeting him on a family vacation in Rome. Now the director wanted to know: Was he interested in a set visit?

“Living in Pittsburgh, I never imagined that the film industry or special effects or doing monsters or any of this stuff — I never even knew that that was a job,” Nicotero, 56, said in a recent phone interview. “To me, it was a hobby.”