Lola on Instagram: " Fun Fact: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) The prison in the film was shot at the Ohio State Reformatory, a real but abandoned prison in Mansfield, Ohio. The production spent months restoring parts of the building so it could look both grim and cinematic on screen. Although the film was not a major box office hit at first, it later gained massive popularity through TV broadcasts and home video, eventually becoming one of the highest-rated films of all time on IMDb."