The Only Reason I Want to Tour the ‘Shawshank Redemption’ Prison

Columbia Pictures

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (via Cinema Blend) the prison from Shawshank Redemption will be open to the cinephile public for tours within the next six months. The Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society has kept the Ohio State Reformatory alive through renovations and smart events that play off the spookier nature of the building (like ghost hunts and Halloween bashes).

Over the weekend they held a 20th anniversary celebration of the movie’s filming, but if the prison is opened for tours, there’s only one thing I want to do when I go.

I want to crawl through a river of shit and come out clean in the gift shop.

Seriously. How cool would it be to vanish like a fart in the wind the way Andy Dufresne did, shuffling on your stomach to freedom through a tunnel hidden by Raquel Welch? “Incredibly cool,” is the correct answer.

Plus, if the Preservation Society recreates the jail cell set (complete with fussy britches), it’ll give everyone a chance to figure out how Andy replaced the poster perfectly after stuffing himself behind it. We can try it for ourselves to see that it doesn’t work.

Drinking beers on the roof is a close second, and it sounds like they could use volunteers for the restoration anyway. For more information and the complete 14-site driving tour, check out their official website.