lurid

When people are lured into looking at something, they may be drawn to it because it's a shocking, graphic, or horrible scene, something lurid and very vivid that pulls them in. Shrunken heads of witch doctors and crime scenes are examples of lurid things.

An expression used to avoid hearing or seeing disturbing things is "spare me the lurid details" or "spare me the gory details," and people say that so they won't have shocking or ugly images put into their imaginations. The word lurid, which entered English in the 17th century, comes from Latin lūridis, "ghastly, pale yellow." All of the synonyms for the adjective lurid describe qualities that can turn a person pale: dreadful, nightmarish, and horrific, among others. Lurid is just a uniquely dark and gruesome word.