with ads that proclaimed, 'Invite a few friends over to watch the end of the world.' The picture didn't make any money." Corman later reflected: One of the great problems is that the film is far too intellectual. Other people have told me that they think it's a meaningless film. They may well be both right. It is the most intricate and the most organized intellectual film that I have ever made. I was so careful to keep each concept deep behind a humorous look at it. I didn't want at any time to allow the preachings of what I was saying to come across too heavily and disturb the flow of the picture and its humor. In my desire to keep it in the background, I may have kept it so far in the background that I'm the only person who is going to know what is in every scene. It was the last film Corman directed for AIP, and he only made one more movie before a 20-year sabbatical. " A great deal of care went into what I was saying and how I was going to say it", he said of Gas-s-s-s. "The finished picture does not evidently make all these points. It discourages me and so for a little while I prefer to step away...Directing is very hard and very painful. Producing is easy. I can do it without really thinking about it." Corman did, however, go on to produce Boxcar Bertha for AIP. Gas-s-s-s found a fresh audience on late night television in the 1980s. In 2005, it was issued on DVD as a Midnite Movies double feature with Wild in the Streets (1968), another AIP movie. See also List of American films of 1970 List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction References External links Gas-s-s-s at Grindhouse Database Review of film at The New York Times Review of film at The A.V. Club Review of film at Variety 1970 films 1970s black comedy films 1970s science fiction comedy films 1970s comedy road movies American black comedy films American science fiction comedy films American International Pictures films American comedy road movies American satirical films 1970s English-language films Films directed by Roger Corman Films produced by Roger Corman Films set in Texas Films shot in New Mexico Films shot in Texas Fiction about God American post-apocalyptic films 1970 comedy films 1970 drama films Cultural depictions of Edgar