It is, after all, a lurid story; that luridness doesn't really come through.

Any touches of luridness are reserved for his costumes.

The Homolka-Teale case has riveted the nation because of its luridness.

The luridness of its theme further the controversy.

But what it lacks in length, it makes up in luridness.

But many of the durs have serious weaknesses, the worst being that the hardness often comes off as luridness.

The very luridness of the mask preserved as much distance as it bridged.

If anything distinguished the case, prosecutors said, it was the volume and luridness of the images of abuse.

Despite some of its glaring luridness, it's a good novel; it teaches a valuable message.'

With hundreds of channels now, no one has to watch news, and 24-hour cable channels are likely to deliver tabloid luridness.

It is a testament to the strength of the work that the luridness of the life does not overwhelm it.

It does to the play what Disney has done to Times Square: diminished the luridness and the allure.

Such luridness is typical of Mr. Korie's black and sometimes witty libretto.

It may lack some of the luridness and frankness of the sexual peccadilloes that have afflicted the British royal family in recent years.

Or is "Showgirls" simply filling its quota for the arbitrary luridness, action and extravagance needed to lure audiences around the globe?

Aft, Hell Rock was silhouetted against the waning luridness of a fireball that spread across half heaven.

Real life, as portrayed on television, has grown so graphic that the people who write teleplays and screenplays have been forced into greater luridness just to keep up.

If your mother read "Portnoy's Complaint" aloud to her cronies, trimming it to her standards of length and luridness, who would be hurt?

Despite the luridness of some of the subjects, her approach is resolutely Pollyannaish; the thrust of "problem" stories is always the upbeat idea that help is available.

If Wilkie Collins were alive today, he would undoubtedly be in Hollywood, demanding hefty fees for screenplays that cater to a late-20th-century taste for glossy luridness.

In "La Femme Nikita," about a government assassin, the director Luc Besson combined American luridness and Gallic style.

The atmosphere in "Bangkok Tattoo" is no less humidly and richly imagined, and the luridness is perhaps even more welcoming than in "Bangkok 8."

The re-enactment abruptly becomes more somber as the attack begins, and Mr. Kaplan avoids any element of luridness in staging the rape itself; this part of the scene is very discreet.