Horror films, for so long a disparaged corner of the cultural landscape, are increasingly being studied by students of English in Scottish schools.

An increased number of candidates chose to write their Higher English essay on a media text - with popular choices including several horrors or films which deploy horror tropes, such as The Shining, The Sixth Sense, Psycho and Shutter Island.

The trend emerges in 2017-18 course reports published by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, which also lists a number of popular non-horror films, including The Dressmaker, The Prestige and Pleasantville.

Film-maker and critic Mark Cousins said: “I’m glad to see that these [horror] films are being used in English. Each has a distinctive poetics, and plays with time, tension or even psychoanalysis. These are gothic works of art which allow students to engage with deep questions about fear and identification. It’s snobbery to suggest that great horror cinema shouldn’t be used in teaching. Oedipus Rex is horror theatre; Psycho helps us understand Edgar Allan Poe.”

Gothic horror ‘is part of Scottish culture’

He added: “The gothic mode is a particular part of Scottish culture. It’s great that it’s being approached through film.”

At National 5, the level below Scotland’s flagship Higher qualification, film is more popular than TV drama and pupils studied movies such as The Dark Knight, Psycho, Romeo + Juliet and The Untouchables.

Referring to Advanced Higher - broadly equivalent to A level - the course report says: “Dystopian fiction remains as popular as ever and some markers noted a significant rise in the choice of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, perhaps reflecting the popularity of the recent Netflix adaptation (sic) of the novel.”

Some teachers have complained of being upbraided by school senior management, who do not see the educational value of showing a class a film at the end of term. Others, however, have praised the Harry Potter book and film series as it “captures the magic of teaching”.