Opening this year’s Glasgow FrightFest is the World Premiere of Vasily Chuprina’s directorial debut, Jailbroken, and while the opening movie of any festival is a statement of intent, here that statement is unusual. Instead of horror, we get a one-room thriller in the mould of Steven Knight’s Locke or Joel Schumacher’s Phone Booth as Chuprina’s entry into this micro-thriller realm takes place in a single jail cell with an illicit phone. Bryan Larkin plays Joe, who’s attempting to plan his welcome-back party after a spell inside, but things go awry when his ex-wife and estranged son are kidnapped by an unknown party.
This style of narrative is about as close as you can get to a one-person play as it’s a piece that hangs entirely on its leading star. Jailbroken does have a slightly larger cast with new cellmate Naz (Armin Karima), and guards Smith (David Hayman), and Rogers (Douglas Russell), but the lion’s share of screentime is laser-focused on Larkin. That’s the ultimate test of any actor – can they command attention and evoke empathy such that you invest in the fates of those on the other end of the phone? Here, it’s a coming-out party for Bryan Larkin as even though Joe is a violent, reprehensible convict, Larkin finds humanity in the role and lets you see the person behind the bravura. It’s a good job too, because if this role were filled by a less capable actor, the whole project would crumble under its own hubris.
The rest of the cast deserve credit too, with Hayman and Russell oozing an aura of being just horrible at their jobs, and Karima bringing unearned bravado that’s punctured at every opportunity. The voices on the other end of the phone place you within the unfolding drama with an authenticity and captivating presence that recalls Pontypool‘s unholy, graphic radio reports. That ensemble includes The Descent‘s Shauna Macdonald, Jack Parry-Jones, Ayvianna Snow, Anna Russell-Martin, and Slow Horses‘ Chris Reilly – their talents, alongside well-tempered sound design, completing the picture.
Even though Joe is a violent, reprehensible convict, Larkin finds humanity in the role and lets you see the person behind the bravura.
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The cinematography by DoP Mark Nutkins is another star as we never see beyond this 8x8m concrete box – the closest we get is when the door opens for a guard’s appearance, and across 87 minutes you’d expect to become intimately and tediously familiar with every bit of this room. This is a real concern for any limited-space picture (which hamstrung Locke, and they had passing motorway sights!), but here Nutkins’s gaze never settles, is always motivated, and uses the grizzled visages of the cast to mine emotional truth. That Jailbroken never becomes boring and never feels trapped by its cell is proof that Nutkin has pulled off a minor miracle within the most challenging test for any DoP – keeping a single room visually interesting. This is billed as an action movie, and when things eventually kick off Nutkins’s camera gives menace and form to the threats Joe has been throwing around. Of course, it’s not just the camera as Vasily Chuprina’s economical blocking is key, as is the movement in Raymond Friel’s script – the latter being more of a mixed blessing.
On one hand, tension rises throughout, character work makes the story feel like it exists beyond eighty seven minutes, and the mystery is full of twists and red herrings that keeps momentum moving. Less successful is the dialogue, particularly the awkward exposition which can somewhat be forgiven because “telling” is necessary when so much “show” is robbed by the location and situation – but it’s a limitation that Jailbroken doesn’t wholly overcome. The script also struggles with how family members talk to each other, for example if I ever called my sister “Sis” she’d mock me mercilessly, as would anyone remotely Northern (this is set in Scotland). Joe does it endlessly, and the script is littered with these small moments that could have been fixed with one more draft.
As a showcase for Vasily Chuprina’s directorial arrival, there’s much to admire – from plotting scenes in an extreme location to working with named actors. Beyond that it lacks the crossover appeal of many debuts, whether due to script issues or the inherently divisive nature of the prison-set movie. Jailbroken does little to overcome those apprehensions, and for audiences who do gravitate toward movies set in custody, it completely abandons the bluster they typically demand.
JAILBROKEN HAD ITS WORLD PREMIERE AT GLASGOW FRIGHTFEST 2026
