To a degree I can see their point. They're about to have a deranged madman specifically attempt to brutally murder a 15 year old kid.
The emphasis was to be on it being a genuinely horrifying act so they decided NOT to "sugar-coat the pill" with Joker-isms but to actively make the reader feel that this is grotesque and WRONG, and not in a fantasy way, but in a visceral way.
Turning it from "ridiculous, and slightly humourous deathtrap" to "precursor to torture porn", from Freddie Kruger making bad puns as he slices up his 313th victim, to the nameless guy with the powerdrill in Hostel who simply IS a depraved monster.
I think this was entirely the wrong story to do this in, and I don't think it worked (And if someone as good as Jim Aparo can't sell you on a concept like that, then it's probably unsellable), but I think I can see what they were trying to achieve.