B-Rated! is two shows in one: a fully improvised so-bad-it's-good B-movie, complete with cheesy acting, corny plots, and hammy characters; and a fully improvised commentary track, heckling the movie and loving it too. You choose the genre and the title, and the rest is cinematic history.
Check out the plot summaries of some of our recent shows below to get a taste of just how bad-yet-good these movies can get!
June 2023
"Blood of Housing Developments"
Horror. Gordon and Drew riffing.
A nervous boy (Kevan), his hard-partying sister (Erika), and her horndog boyfriend (Chris) are just normal teenagers, hanging around housing developments the way we all did when we were in high school, looking to get high, get drunk, get laid, or get our names on a housing lease. But they've wandered into the wrong development, because a sinister figure (John) appears and convinces the boy to accept a leasing form, then issues the cryptic warning "THREE DAYS." The boy struggles at first to understand the form (full of perplexing terms like "net income") and ends up in the cemetery talking to the ghosts of his dead parents after a flashback in which he sees the same sinister figure convincing them to sign a similar lease. The boy discovers that he was adopted, which is for some reason the key to turning the tables on the sinister figure. Can the boy keep his sister and her boyfriend from suffering the same fate their parents did? What will happen if he signs the lease? What will happen if he doesn't? And will anyone in this horror film actually die?
"Kiss, Bowling Alley, Snakes"
Romance. Erika and Ian riffing.
It's another lonely Friday night for snake wrangler John (John), as he bowls his troubles away down at the alley. But something's different tonight, because when Petunia (Kevan) walks in and takes up the lane next to his, he falls instantly in love. Petey (Gordon), who is working at the alley that night (and apparently every night), fills John in on Petunia's peculiarities, including the fact that she brings her own shoes, and her shoes are absolutely filthy. Recounting all this the next day to his boss (Chris), John is horrified to hear that the incredible woman he's describing having fallen hard for is in fact his boss's wife. To make matters worse, the boss's favorite snake, Cobra 17 a.k.a. Petunia or "Little P," is missing! Desperate to avoid becoming a homewrecker, John enlists Petey's help to try and convince Petunia that he (John) is celibate, but Petunia's highly precise bowling skills help her win a wager with Petey that gets the truth out of him. Meanwhile John finds Cobra 17 (Gordon), or rather Cobra 17 finds him, and is not inclined to be wrangled, at least not before biting an old-timey police officer (Kevan) who encourages John with his dying breath to carpe diem. Is Petunia's marriage to John's boss truly over, or is it Petunia and John's love that's doomed? How is the cobra able to speak, and what is its plan for its human? And what is the deal with those dirty, DIRTY shoes?
September 2021
After a long break from B-Rating, we're back! We'll be performing at 9:30 PM on the first Friday of every month at the Atlas Theater, home of CSz Seattle. Wear a mask and come support us in half-anonymity! We've missed you.
January 2020
A very exciting month for B-Rated!: not only was this the grand opening of our Twitter and Instagram presences, it also marked the launch of the website you're reading right now. We presented two of our more bizarre movies at the Atlas Theater, then did a 25-minute Pokemon love story at the Once Told Tales festival at SecondStory Repertory in Redmond.