Thanks a lot for the feedback!
Yeah, I was considering toning down the visuals for a while, but honestly I don't think the gameplay would stand up if you could see clearly :L Obscurity is a pretty easy way of doing horror, but its still pretty effective... like how the second you got a look at the shark in Jaws, it stopped being a terrifying threat that lurks beneath the deep and was just... a big silly rubber shark :P
If I keep working on the project, I think it would be interesting to see if I could put together a clear and readable visual style and still make the gameplay mechanic frightening.