Films — Live-Action
No-one cares for you a smidge, when you're in an orphanage.
— Orphaned Girls, Annie (1982)
BFG: "Was you happy [at the orphanage]?"
Sophie: "I hated it. The woman who ran it was called Mrs. Clonkers and if she caught you breaking any of the rules, like getting out of bed at night or not folding up your clothes, you got punished."
BFG: "How is you getting punished?"
Sophie: "She locked us in the dark cellar for a day and a night without anything to eat or drink."
BFG: "That rotten old rotrasper!"
Sophie: "It was horrid. We used to dread it. There were rats down there. We could hear them creeping about."
— The BFG
A sign suspended on two flagpoles arced over the crushed-gravel lane that veered for the house. In precise Gothic lettering painted upon roughhewn birch wood, it declared that these were the grounds of the Children's Home for Human Enlightenment.
The sign neither mentioned hope nor counselled abandonment. But in the driver's opinion, it should have.
Months had passed since the farm was given new life, but the purpose of this place was unclear. Tales told of a flickering electric-blue glow in the windows at night, the pervasive whiff of ozone, muffled screams, and always – always – the loamy shit-smell of freshly turned soil. But the countless rumors did agree on one thing: Herr Doktor von Westarp paid well for healthy children.
"So... what did you use to do back in the world?" Polly said.
Wazzer gave her a haunting smile.: "I used to be beaten."
"There’s just us, Polly. Just her and me. No inheritance, no nice home to go back to, no relatives that we know of. The Grey House breaks us all, somehow. Wazzer talks to the Duchess, I don’t have... middle gears, and Tilda frightens me when she gets her hands on a box of matches. You should see her face then, though. It lights up. Of course," Tonker smiled in her dangerous way, "so do other things. Better get everyone into the storeroom while we light the candle."
"Shouldn’t Tilda do that?"
"She will. But we’ll have to drag her away, otherwise she’ll stay and watch."
Her pious caretakers had marked her for the last time. Tonight, she would escape their cruelty at last.
— The Academic, Darkest Dungeon II, about the Runaway and her decision to escape St. Martha's Orphanage.
