Smile for the Cameras

Smile for the Cameras by Miranda Smith
6/24/25; 320 pages
Random House

Smile for the Cameras by Miranda Smith is a recommended locked-room thriller and horror movie drama.

Twenty years ago the slasher movie Grad Night was released and became a cult-classic. In the movie Ella Winters was the sole survivor and this role made her famous. However, something happened during the making of the movie which Ella and her co-stars agreed to never mention again, but the secret has weighed heavy on Ella for years. Ella left acting after this to care for her ill mother. 

Now her mother has passed away and Ella is talked into doing a reunion documentary about Grad Night. She has never wanted to do this but all her co-stars in the film have agreed to participate. If she does the reunion she is promised a role in a new film, which will ease her way back into acting. The reunion show is being filmed at the original site, an isolated cabin in rural Tennessee. Ella immediately knows this is a mistake.

There is a lot of potential for this plot. The narrative follows the present day reunion shoot, the actions from twenty years ago during the original movie, and includes excerpts from the Grad Night script. Everything indicates something bad is going to happen and it does. The pace starts out slow and builds to create more tension toward the end.

The characters all slide into their roles smoothly, and all of them have overlaying shadows of suspicion surrounding them. Ella is generally likable, but incredibly fragile.

The atmosphere created is never really that frightening and while it held my attention, the plot never quite came together for me. Perhaps if I was more a fan of slasher movies rather than locked-room thrillers it would have helped, along with more originality and surprises. I actually started skimming the script excerpts because they were so insipid. The biggest drawback, however, was a surprise twist toward the end that left me shaking my head and saying, "No, just no." It also knocked a star off.

Smile for the Cameras might be best appreciated by slasher movie fans. Thanks to Random House for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.