You Should Watch One Legendary Stephen King Movie Before It: Welcome to Derry's Upcoming Installment
The series It: Welcome to Derry is packed with nods to Stephen King's vast universe of narratives. Apart from the clear ties to It, the show includes a direct connection to King's famous novel via the cameo of the youthful Dick Hallorann. Currently, as the story progresses, Welcome to Derry is weaving in one more classic tale from King which merits a revisit.
The Haunting Tale of The Shawshank Redemption
Although The Shawshank Redemption isn't typically considered horror, particularly in contrast with much of the author's additional work, it is a gripping story of a wrongfully convicted individual sentenced to live the rest of his life inside a notorious penitentiary. And it's that very penitentiary that becomes important here, as Shawshank State Prison possesses considerable history throughout King's stories — a tradition which persists within It: Welcome to Derry.
Some of the tales that reference the prison include Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, Apt Pupil, 11/22/63, and It. Through these stories, we discover regarding the awful life at the state penitentiary plus some of the inmates within, including the boyfriend of a belonging to Pennywise's initial victims, who had been convicted of armed robbery.
Thus far, however, the most we have discovered about the prison has been via the eyes of the protagonist from The Shawshank Redemption, portrayed by Tim Robbins in the 1994 movie. Andy ends up in Shawshank following being wrongly convicted, and finds himself beaten and abused by other prisoners, and exploited by the authority figures for his financial knowledge. He requires him 28 years to dig an escape route from Shawshank, before crawling "through sewage" to take back his freedom.
The Prison's Role in Welcome to Derry
Regarding the series, viewers first learned about the prison's inclusion via an early trailer for the series, where a prison bus appeared with the name painted on the side. In episode 2, we learn which character is probably destined for Shawshank.
Though we know he did not commit the murders of children initially, Hank Grogan (played by Stephen Rider), dad to Ronnie (Amanda Christine), is arrested for those offenses. The preview for episode 3, "Now You See It," shows an officer informing Hank in his cell, "Are you aware what they do to kiddie killers at that prison?"
The Implications for Hank and Ronnie
Given that the real murderer in the town is a primordial entity from another world preying on and murdering children, Hank's prospects of clearing his name do not look good. Even should he does go to Shawshank and the audience do not see him there, knowing what is known regarding Shawshank indicates that his experience would be far from enjoyable.
Crucially, though, this situation would endanger Ronnie. He acts as her guardian. Horrible things are occurring in the town which no one, child or adult, understands and Ronnie only has her new group of friends to depend on. She's going to need her dad as the story progresses, however should the prison system has any say, she may be without help.
A single fact is apparent: Hank doesn’t have 28 years to dig his way out.
Welcome to Derry episodes 1 and 2 are currently available on HBO Max. New episodes are released each week each Sunday.
