ghastly, grisly, gruesome, macabre, lurid mean horrifying and repellent in appearance or aspect. ghastly suggests the terrifying aspects of corpses and ghosts.
// a ghastly accident grisly and gruesome suggest additionally the results of extreme violence or cruelty.
// an unusually grisly murder
// suffered a gruesome death macabre implies a morbid preoccupation with the physical aspects of death.
// a macabre tale of premature burial lurid adds to gruesome the suggestion of shuddering fascination with violent death and especially with murder.
// the lurid details of a crime