Oat Cult gives tiramisu the medieval horror treatment

Probiotic breakfast brand Oat Cult has turned tiramisu into overnight oats, and is launching the limited-edition flavour with a black-and-white brand film set in 15th-century Italy.

In it, a hole in the ground swallows the villagers’ most prized possessions and pays them back by spraying coffee-and-chocolate oats into their faces.

Independent agency Thingy & Thingy made the film, and Mike Upson of MindsEye directed it.

Folk horror is familiar ground for the brand. Its pagan horror breakfast film from last year, made by Insiders, was also shot in black and white.

Founder Ben da Costa said: “Backing creative people, whether that’s agencies, animators or someone making things in their bedroom, is part of what Oat Cult is for, and watching other people bring this world to life has been a joy. When I read the script, I knew my baby was in safe hands. Then they pushed it into a hole. I’ve still not had it back.”

Thingy & Thingy founders Darren and Thais described the film as being “about a disgusting hole that devours life in return for delicious tiramisu overnight oats, which it spews into a kid’s face. Which is a little more shart than art.”

The recipe went through 30 versions before the team settled on real decaf coffee rather than flavouring.

Great British Chefs has named tiramisu its dessert of the year, and Tastewise data cited by the brand puts it on almost 15% more UK menus than a year ago.

That is the same food-trend hunger KFC fed with its Picklecore fashion range.

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