You Should Watch This Legendary Stephen King Movie Before the Series' Upcoming Installment
The series It: Welcome to Derry is filled with connections to the author's extensive universe of narratives. Apart from the obvious links to It, the series showcases a direct link to King's famous novel via the appearance of a young future chef of the Overlook Hotel. Now, as the story progresses, Welcome to Derry is integrating another classic tale from King which merits a revisit.
The Powerful Tale of The Shawshank Redemption
Although The Shawshank Redemption isn't typically classified as horror, especially compared to a lot of King's other writing, it is a haunting tale of a wrongfully convicted individual condemned to spend the rest of his life in a infamous penitentiary. And it's this specific institution that becomes central in this context, since the Shawshank facility possesses significant lore throughout King's fictional world — a tradition which persists within Welcome to Derry.
Among the tales which mention Shawshank include Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, Apt Pupil, 11/22/63, as well as It. Through these narratives, we discover about the awful life at the state penitentiary and some of those imprisoned within, such as the boyfriend of one belonging to Pennywise's early targets, who had been convicted of armed robbery.
Thus far, however, the majority we have discovered concerning Shawshank has been via the perspective of Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption, portrayed by the actor Tim Robbins in the 1994 movie. Andy ends up in Shawshank after being wrongly convicted, and finds himself beaten and raped by other prisoners, while exploited by the officials in power due to his expertise in finance. It takes him 28 years to dig an escape route of the prison, prior to crawling "through sewage" to reclaim his liberty.
Shawshank's Role in It: Welcome to Derry
Regarding It: Welcome to Derry, viewers first learned about the prison's involvement via an initial preview for the series, in which a prison bus was seen bearing the title painted on the side. During the second episode, we learn who is likely destined for the prison.
Although we know he did not commit the child deaths in the first episode, the character Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider), father of Ronnie (Amanda Christine), gets taken into custody for those offenses. The preview for the next episode, "Now You See It," reveals an officer informing a jailed Hank, "Do you know what they do to kiddie killers in Shawshank?"
The Consequences for Hank and His Daughter
Given that the actual murderer in the town is an ancient power from another world preying on and murdering kids, Hank's chances of proving his innocence do not look good. And even if he does go to Shawshank and the audience do not see him inside, understanding what is known regarding Shawshank makes it clear that his time there would not be enjoyable.
More importantly, though, this situation could threaten Ronnie. Hank is her guardian. Terrible events are occurring in the town that nobody, young or old, comprehends and Ronnie just has her new group of friends to rely on. She's going to need her father in the coming episodes, however should Shawshank has any say, she could be without help.
A single fact seems clear: Hank lacks 28 years to tunnel his way out.
It: Welcome to Derry the first two episodes are streaming now on HBO Max. New episodes are released each week each Sunday.
