If you ask me, it's meant to look like the Necronomicon or some other "evil" book from out of an '80s slasher film. Which to me, makes them look like a lot of fun!
Karnival's ALWAYS been about the skulls and "evil" imagery. This deck is just taking that theme a baby-step further. The Dose deck looked like something out of the Nine Inch Nails video for "Closer", The Dead Eyes deck had blood splatter on several cards... It's just more of that, taking up a little notch. It's for "Criss Angel-ish" magicians or people who are into Goth and Neo-Goth. I've always been something of a "closet Goth", so Karnival's decks are a perfect fit for me.
My big hope is that they upgrade the stock, finish or both. All that ink's going to make this deck's performance take a serious hit if they don't use Magic Finish.