ghastliness

1. Inspiring shock, revulsion, or horror by or as if by suggesting death; terrifying: a ghastly murder.

2. Suggestive of or resembling ghosts.

3. Extremely unpleasant or bad: "in the most abominable passage of his ghastly little book" (Conor Cruise O'Brien).

4. Very serious or great: a ghastly error.

Synonyms: These adjectives describe what is shockingly repellent in aspect or appearance. Ghastly applies to what inspires shock or horror because it suggests death: ghastly wounds.
Grim refers to what repels because of its stern or fierce aspect or its harsh, relentless nature: the grim task of burying the victims of the earthquake.
Gruesome and grisly describe what horrifies or revolts because of its appalling crudity or utter inhumanity: a gruesome murder; grisly jokes about cadavers.
Macabre suggests the horror of death and decay: macabre stories about a madman.
Lurid sometimes refers to an unnatural hue suggestive of death: The ill patient's skin took on a lurid pallor.
More often, the term describes what shocks because of its terrible and ghastly nature: lurid crimes.
At other times, it merely refers to glaring and usually unsavory sensationalism: a lurid account of the accident.