lurid

Lurid means unpleasantly bright, in a shocking way. Lurid colours, lurid details, a lurid headline.

Of colour it means glaring and unnatural; of a story it means sensational and dwelling on the worst — lurid details is close to a fixed phrase in criticism of reporting. The word once meant pale and ghastly, which is nearly the opposite, and the sense reversed through the idea of an unnatural glow.