OG made an interesting comment, if you look at one of his first films, Reservoir Dogs, the scene where Mr Blonde cuts the ear off the cop it was gory beyond belief because you didn't see anything. It was quite surreal to see him dancing to stuck in the middle with you combined with anticipation of something really nasty about to happen. Just about perfectly acted and directed. But there was no gore just our imagination filling in the pictures.
However how many times has that scene been reconstructed in life, I don't believe it's actually the film the promotes this violence, we continually improve on ways to make other people suffer, bring pain and death through our imagination and yes everybody has an imagination.