The Pit And The Pendulum

So I'm up way too late last night, doing a little channel surfing to put off going to bed, when I stumble across a Turner Classic Movies running of 1961's The Pit and the Pendulum, directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. (It's Halloween week -- every cable channel is airing whatever scary stuff they can find.) I remembered seeing this movie as a child, and I remember it scaring the bejeezus out of me. So I settled in, anticipating some nice late night shivers.

What a disappointment. Everybody in the cast not named Price was slow, wooden, dull, and boring, which matched the pacing of the movie. It only runs 80 minutes to begin with, but it felt like they could have cut it down to 40 easily and not left anything out.

Some reviews (posted to the film's IMDb page) praised how it set a disquieting, disturbing mood, but the only thing that kept me watching was the payoff at the end, when Vincent Price finally gets his brother-in-law beneath the titular Pendulum. But even that was a disappointment compared to what I remember. I'm no gore hound, but I guess I've still been desensitized by the CSIs, and Bones of the world. I wanted a little sliced flesh, not a slit shirt and smidge of red. What a comedown.

 So in what other ways have my childhood memories turned out to be completely off? Do I want to know?