History Main / OrphanageOfFear

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': At the start of the story, Anya is living in a clandestine orphanage run by a sleazy FatBastard guy who seems pretty eager to get rid of as many kids as possible, before she gets adopted by Loid.

* In ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'', a combination of customs and circumstance turns the Temple orphanage into this. The children are usually fed with leftovers and gifts from the Noble-blood Blue Priests, but a recent purge of the nobility has resulted in a recall of most of those, leaving precious few left in the temple. Worse, a custom that doesn't even consider the youngest orphans ''people'' until they hit baptism age means that by the time Myne stumbles upon the orphanage, the remainder are literally starving to death. It's telling that Myne putting them to work on her paper-making business is considered an ''improvement'' because the money she pays them can go to their own care.

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': "Seeing Stars" portrays {{hellhound}} adoption centers like these in a flashback, mixed with PoundsAreAnimalPrisons. The pups are malnourished and deformed, the cells are filled with grime, and the social worker's dialog implies the pups are mostly sold as slaves or family pets, and she doesn't acknowledge pups being violent towards each other, even when one is threating his cellmate with a [[SavageSpikedWeapons bloody nail bat]] in front of her. [[spoiler:This where he finds and adopts Loona, [[AdultAdoptee a month before she turned 18]].]]

[[folder:Web Video]]
* Pinkie Pie from ''WebVideo/FriendshipIsWitchcraft'' lived in at least an emotionally abusive one as a filly. It left her with deep insecurities about being Romani and being an [[FantasticRacism Earth Pony]].
* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' plays this for black comedy. Young Rainbow Dash grew up in a lot of abusive orphanages (and with a lot of equally-abusive foster families). As she explains in "Shameless Self Reference":
-->'''Rainbow Dash:''' Anyway, this is the seventh orphanage I got kicked out of. I think it was my third longest-running orphanage. [...] Aw, coming back here, so many good memories. I mean, there's a lot more ''bad'' memories, but there's a few good memories, too.

%%* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'': If [[spoiler:[[http://hyenafu.tumblr.com/post/157694646799/i-usually-try-to-avoid-answering-questions-about Tsavo's backstory]]]] is anything to go by, {{Hell}} has one of these. (Administrivia/WeblinksAreNotExamples)

%% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions50
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

* The Spanish horror movie ''El orfanato'' ("Film/TheOrphanage") despite all expectations is for the most part a subversion. The movie is actually about a woman returning to an orphanage years after she grew up there. Although according to her, she was actually happy at the orphanage, and all the kids saw each other as one big happy family. Until they got on [[spoiler: Benigna]]'s bad side, that is. Its [[spoiler: after she poisons most of the kids that it becomes a place of actually supernatural fear and even then the tortured souls of the kids only manifest because they wish to help Laura.]]
* Despite the best intentions of the staff the orphanage in ''Film/TheDevilsBackbone'' is an Orphanage of Fear thanks to the Spanish civil war, dwindling resources, and a ghost, but mostly the return of a now-adult orphan.
* In the film ''Film/CourageMountain'', the main character and her friends are sent to an Orphanage of Fear when their boarding school is closed down because of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
* The Catholic orphanage in ''The Boys of St. Vincent'' and ''The Boys of St. Vincent -- 15 Years Later'' definitely fits the bill.
** Then there's the Catholic girls' "asylum" in ''Film/TheMagdaleneSisters'', made all the scarier in that it's based on RealLife institutions.
* The orphanage in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire'' definitely qualifies. The seemingly kind owner [[spoiler: drugs and blinds a boy so he'll earn more money busking]].
* ''Annie'', both the [[{{Film/Annie1982}} 1982]] and [[{{Film/Annie1999}} 1999]] versions.
* While not technically an orphanage, the juvenile detention facility House of Refuge from ''Film/{{Newsies}}'' qualifies; the corrupt warden bribes judges to condemn orphans to imprisonment there so he can pocket the money the government gives him to take care of them.
* The Rainbow Room orphanage from ''Franchise/{{RoboCop}}'' is a good example. The director of the orphanage is more concerned with making commercials to earn money than taking care of the kids.
* From ''Film/OurMothersHouse'': ''It's a place with bars on the windows. Big iron bars and you can't get out. And you're not allowed outside except when they say. And they whip you. They whip you with whips. And they never give you enough to eat. And you wear sackcloth and sleep on bare boards. And they put the girls in one place, and the boys in another. And you're not allowed to talk or they'll whip you!''
* The ironically named "House of Happy Children" seen in a flashback in the Korean film ''Film/HanselAndGretel2007'' is especially horrific -- the girls are raped and the boys are starved and beaten, sometimes to death.
* ''Film/PrimeCut'' Poppy grew up in an orphanage of this type and was sold into prostitution by the abusive madam as soon as she came of age.
* ''Film/Deadpool2'' has Essex House, a white marbled hell ran by a vicious anti-mutant fundamentalist where Mutant children are tortured with "alternative therapies" with the intention of "curing" their powers while being shackled with PowerLimiter collars like animals. When Deadpool learns that Russel's breakdown with his powers was because he was being physically (possibly sexually) abused by an orderly, he doesn't even blink before [[AssholeVictim shooting the orderly in the head]]. The main conflict of the film centers around Russel's desire to burn Essex House to the ground and kill the staff, which nobody particularly ''cares'' about him doing, but in the process he'd also kill the innocent children inside and [[StartOfDarkness find a taste for killing]]. In the film's climax Domino finds the orderlies planning to execute all the children and ends up killing them all protecting them, and the headmaster gets [[DeathByIrony turned into paste by Dopinder]] at the end.
* The Danish film ''Film/TheDayWillCome'' is about two brothers in the 1960's being placed in a boys' orphanage that also doubles as a boarding school. The headmaster and teachers are unsympathetic and beat the kids for almost anything, even yelling at the brothers and stuffing their faces into their food when they loudly cry at dinner after learning their sick mother passed away. In the end, the younger brother is able to get a former teacher (who was fired for interfering in their beatings) to help him get the orphanage investigated by an inspector. Sadly BasedOnATrueStory, with Denmark having a history of abusive orphanages throughout the 1940s to the 1970s.

* The Kirkman's house in ''Film/TheGathering'' used to be the town's orphanage, which was rumored to be a hotbed of abuse. [[spoiler:It was, with the children present sold for sexual encounters to the powerful men in town, leading to Argyle's rampage to get revenge on everyone associated, including the Kirkmans whose only sin was buying the house, not knowing its history.]]
* ''Film/{{Ana}}'': Ana strongly objects to the idea of being put in a foster home, saying the people there only care for kids to get money, with some molesting them. Rafa reluctantly concedes and doesn't put her in one. When she actually gets into one, two older girls bully her to get cash, but Ana soon makes her escape.

* [[Literature/{{Sharpe}} Richard Sharpe]], from Bernard Cornwell's ''Sharpe'' series, grew up in the workhouse as a child. In one of the later books, it is shown that despite ''twenty years and numerous battles'', Sharpe still has PTSD when he returns and faces the orphanage master. If that weren't enough, the children are served gruel. [[spoiler: Of course, he savagely murders said orphanage master... right in front of a little orphaned girl before proceeding to the main plot, so I guess the book brutally explores this trope front, back, and sideways.]]
* In the Literature/{{American Girl|sCollection}} ''Samantha'' stories, Samantha's friend Nelly gets sent to one of these. Of course, she breaks out and is [[HappilyAdopted adopted by Sam's extraordinarily wealthy family]].
** It's made even ''worse'' in the TV adaptation, in which the matron finds out that Nelly and her sisters escaped with Samantha and promptly steals money that was donated for the orphans and plans to pin the theft on the girls. Fortunately, Samantha's aunt and uncle don't believe a word of it.
* OlderThanRadio: ''Literature/OliverTwist'' starts out in one of these. Technically it's a workhouse- a homeless shelter where the inhabitants did grueling physical labor to pay for their extremely basic accommodation (though in reality, they were more like work camps for the crime of being broke and desperate); these would encompass a section for children (some of whom would actually have one or both parents living in the men's or women's wards respectively.) In fact, social reformers of the time actually regarded orphanages as a more humane alternative to workhouses.
* ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables''. Slight subversion: Anne mentions that the staff meant well, and she wasn't abused, but it was a cold and dreary place where no one was loved. For Anne, though, the orphanage was often the better option than living with some of the many families she grew up with. Not only was she only "adopted" to take care of other people's children, but often these families didn't have enough to feed and clothe themselves (let alone Anne), and a few of the fathers were implied to be mean drunks.
* The protagonists in ''Literature/TheWolvesOfWilloughbyChase'' by Joan Aiken get sent to one of these by their evil governess and her henchman.
* In the ''Literature/MollyMoon'' series, Molly begins her life in one of these. However, at the end of the first book, it becomes an OrphanageOfLove.
* In the ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' books, one city orphanage is considered a great place with well-behaved kids. Jon-Tom discovers it is [[spoiler:an Orphanage of Fear with every child required to be "perfect". The food is great and healthy, however any misbehavior is whipped and all kids have their sexual organs removed because sex isn't "perfect"]].
* Creator/PhilipPullman's ''Literature/SpringHeeledJack'' includes the trio of orphaned protagonists escaping from one of these. The ones who run it pursue them relentlessly, because they don't get paid unless the orphanage is full to capacity.
* Pullman likes this trope -- the Bolvangar installation in ''[[Literature/HisDarkMaterials The Golden Compass]]'' is an especially nasty variation. Seems exactly like, if not an OrphanageOfLove, a fairly middle-of-the-road boarding school (except for being situated in the middle of the Arctic and populated with kidnapped children); functions as a ''laboratory facility''.
* The protagonist of the Creator/VCAndrews novel ''Literature/ChildOfDarkness'' begins the story in one of these.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** The Working House for Young Women, from ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'', was one of these (and implied to be run by a PedophilePriest), with three characters having escaped from it, all of them pretty damaged. One lives on a hair-trigger, one became a pyromaniac, and one thinks that the Duchess, the deified ruler of their country, talks to her. [[spoiler: As it turns out she does and eventually reveals her presence. The first two, though, become bank robbers, and come back and burn the place down near the end.]]
** We don't learn much about the Home for the Destitute in ''Literature/TheWeeFreeMen'', except that Miss Female Infant Robinson, who grew up there, also ends up damaged, and this is apparently not uncommon - the Chalk's only prison is next door, and there's popularly believed to be a connecting door to save time.

** Played with. [[BigBad Voldemort]] grew up in a {{Muggle|s}} orphanage that Harry thinks is "grim," but the overworked staff is clearly taking care of the kids' needs as best they can. The scariest thing about the orphanage was actually Voldemort (then called Tom) himself, an EnfantTerrible who used his undeveloped magic to traumatize his peers, even if the staff could never figure out how he did it.
** Played with in the third book. Aunt Marge declares that Harry should be grateful to the Dursleys for taking him as he would have gone straight to an orphanage if he'd been [[DoorstopBaby dumped on her doorstop]]. Harry's unspoken retort is that he would've preferred the orphanage.
* ''Literature/TheKiteRunner'' had one of these, though it was more the fault of the setting (Taliban-occupied Afghanistan) than any malevolence on the part of the owners.
* Every living arrangement by the orphans in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' works out to be an Orphanage of Fear. Although a few of those cases only turn that way because Count Olaf shows up.
* While the children of Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos Orphans of Chaos]]'' are not actively maltreated, they are certainly kept in the dark about their origins, and apparently kept captive past the age of majority. [[spoiler: They also learn that their keepers have used LaserGuidedAmnesia and {{Restraining Bolt}}s on them.]]
* ''Peppermints in the Parlor'', ''Sparrows in the Scullery'', ''Twin in the Tower'', and anything else Barbara Brooks Wallace ever wrote. She has one of the worst habits of self-plagiarism around, and that's neglecting the obvious influence from Frances Hodgson Burnett's ''A Little Princess'' (which is only an Orphanage Of Fear for the main character and the chimneysweep, being a fairly standard stodgy boarding school for everyone who can pay the bills).
* ''Literature/TheyCageTheAnimalsAtNight'', which is supposedly ''[[TruthInTelevision AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY]]'', puts the protagonist in one of these. It is run by nuns — some of them are nice, while others are... not. Apparently, the punishment for bed-wetting is '''[[MoralEventHorizon stripping the child naked and telling the rest of the orphans about it.]]''' And whipping them the whole time.
* The Sunlight Home from [[Literature/TheTalisman The Talisman]] probably qualifies, with boys who don't love Jesus enough being beaten, locked in a tiny shed, or even killed. Inspired the Ash song "Jack Names The Planets".
* In Jean Webster's ''Literature/DaddyLongLegs'', Jerusha "Judy" Abbot grows up in a borderline example of the trope, John Grier House. The employers weren't directly abusive and the kids had what they basically needed thanks to the sponsors, but it was ''still'' far from an OrphanageOfLove and there was a lot of emotional/intellectual neglect of them. She's still smart and lucky enough to have one of the well-meaning sponsors, the titular DDL ([[spoiler: aka Jervis Pendleton, local BunnyEarsLawyer and TheCasanova]]), send her to a local college. [[spoiler: They meet in person, fall in love, and get married]].
** The sequel to ''Literature/DaddyLongLegs'', ''Dear Enemy'', has Judy's school friend [[FieryRedhead Sallie]] [[{{Tsundere}} McBride]] struggling to turn John Grier House into a proper OrphanageOfLove, under Judy's explicit request. She manages to do it with the help of the orphanage's doctor, [[DrJerk Dr.]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Robin]] [[TragicHero McRae]]. [[SlapSlapKiss Whom Sallie falls]] [[BelligerentSexualTension in love with]].
* In ''The Declaration'' by Gemma Malley, Surpluses, or children born to people taking the immortality drug, are put in these. They are often told they do not deserve to exist and have futures as servants. The main character, Anna, escapes with the help of a boy named Peter. They are allowed to stay out of the group home because [[spoiler: both Anna's parents died, and Peter's father died, and the only way to get out of the homes is if one person in your family dies. That way, you're not adding more people to the world]].
* The Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys in ''Literature/TheSupernaturalist'' qualifies. The institute gets the money for the boys' maintenance by making them test all kinds of products.
* Creator/RoaldDahl's books:
** ''Literature/TheBFG'': Sophie is living in one at the beginning before she is carried away by the Big Friendly Giant.
** ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'': The orphaned James Henry Trotter lives with his aunts, but the treatment he gets from them is pretty much equal to it.
* The children's home in the second half of "[[Literature/TheLastDragon The Last Elf]]" is pretty much this- no food, horrible 'caretakers' and so on. The children are told all day long about how their parents were selfish, horrible people and they deserved to die. Robi doesn't quite believe it.
* St. Aegolius' Academy for Orphaned Owls in the ''Literature/GuardiansOfGaHoole'' series is a pretty good example; stealing hundreds of eggs and owlets and going on to indoctrinate them through brainwashing techniques, completely erasing their sense of self, fiercely punishing any who ask any questions, forcing them to do labor such as picking through pellets and organizing what is found in them, and so on... Also, one of the owls in charge [[spoiler:''eats owl eggs''.]]
* ''Literature/BrotherhoodOfTheRose'' by David Morrell. Although the protagonists aren't mistreated in their government-run orphanage, all the children are indoctrinated to become patriotic CannonFodder for the US military.
* In Allison Croggon's ''Literature/BooksOfPellinor'' series, the main character's younger brother (and the main character of book three) Hem grew up in a terrible orphanage in a corrupt and rotting town. It came complete with dismal living spaces, horribly abusive adults, murderously petty and emotionally scared children, all capped off with the disturbingly common instances of death by starvation or murder- because of the fierceness of the other children.
* ''Literature/ThursdaysChild'', by Creator/NoelStreatfeild. St. Luke's Orphanage is run by "Matron" who steals from the children to enrich herself and is physically abusive. After she leaves, it becomes an Orphanage of Love, due to the influence of Lady Corkberry.
* ''Literature/FarawayDream'', by Jane Flory. Seafarers Safe Harbor for Orphans is run by Mrs. Dempey, who is physically abusive and lazy.
* The "boarding school" to which Charlotte Sophia is sent first in Creator/EdwardGorey's ''Literature/TheHaplessChild''.
* ''Literature/ADrownedMaidensHair'': Girls live in squalor in the severely underfunded Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans, which is run by Miss Kitteridge, who seems to dislike kids and Maud in particular and is constantly inflicting harsh punishments.
* "Thrift House", run by the corrupt and abusive Mrs. Spindletrap in ''Literature/TheSilverSpoonOfSolomonSnow'', by Kaye Umansky.
* In "Literature/JackBlank and the Imagine Nation" the orphanage that the titular character comes from is called "St. Barnaby's Home for the Hopeless, Abandoned, Forgotten, and Lost." In fact, at one point, the headmaster attempts to change the title from "Home" to "Ward" simply because "home" sounds too pleasant.
* PlayedForLaughs in one of the ''Literature/WelkinWeasels'' books, when Scirf scares his captors with made-up stories of his terrible childhood.

* As Simon aptly describes it in ''Literature/TheWitchWatch'', Ravenstead Academy takes in orphans and ''teaches them to fear Lord Mordaunt.''
* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', Freckles grew up in one of the not actively cruel ones. Still --
-->''"Were they kind to you?" [=McLean=] regretted the question the minute it was asked.\\
"I don't know," answered Freckles. The reply sounded so hopeless, even to his own ears, that he hastened to qualify it by adding: "You see, it's like this, sir. Kindnesses that people are paid to lay off in job lots and that belong equally to several hundred others, ain't going to be soaking into any one fellow so much." . . . ."When I was too old for the training they gave to the little children, they sent me to the closest ward school as long as the law would let them; but I was never like any of the other children, and they all knew it. I'd to go and come like a prisoner, and be working around the Home early and late for me board and clothes. I always wanted to learn mighty bad, but I was glad when that was over. "

* The [=McGreavy=]’s Home for Wayward Girls in the book ''Literature/WonderShow'', where Portia is sent.
* In Benjamin Black's (a.k.a. John Banville's) novels about pathologist Quirke, set in mid-twentieth-century Ireland, Quirke spent his childhood in Carricklea, a horribly abusive orphanage run by the Christian Brothers. TruthInTelevision, unfortunately, as the novels are responding to recent revelations about what such orphanages could be like.
* Creator/AnaisNin describes one of these in her novella ''Children of the Albatross'', part of ''Literature/CitiesOfTheInterior''. Djuna, a beautiful young woman with "enormous fairytale eyes", tells the story of how she grew up in one of these grim places. "The Watchman" was supposed to keep the girls within walls at night but would let them out for a few hours in return for sexual favors.

* In Creator/LJagiLamplighter's ''[[Literature/RachelGriffin The Raven, the Elf, and Rachel]]'', Siggy's warnings about what adults do to you show that while he doesn't complain about it, he grew up in one.
* ''Literature/EscapeToWitchMountain'' by Alexander Key The place Tony and Tia were sent to after Grandma Malone died was more reformatory than the Disney Orphanage in the movie. They are sent there because of the various minor offenses they had committed out of innocence. Tia has the power to break locks and frequently does this to free trapped animals. She also breaks into the library at the orphanage because she is a {{Bookworm}}. Tony cannot make her understand why adults see it as a crime, and since she is mute the adults assume she's (at best) rebellious.
* In Sam Gayton's ''Literature/{{Lilliput}}'', Finn was an orphan at one of these, ironically called "The House of Safekeeping". The clocks there were designed to run quickly during the orphans' free time, and slowly during their work time. Christmas Day was forty minutes long there.
* In ''Literature/AlbertineAndTheHouseOfTheThousandWonders'' by Frank Reifenberg and Jan Strathmann, the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Children's Happiness Home]] where the heroine lives pretty much embodies the trope. Though the headmistress has her favorites, they aren't particularly happy either. The kids are forced to ''paint the lawn green'' to make the orphanage look at least halfway decent.
* In ''Literature/TheKid'', St. Ailanthus doesn't appear to be this at first, as it's actually a high-quality orphanage and school whose students often go on to college or trades if they aren't adopted. What makes it this trope is the fact that two of the priests are pedophiles who rape the protagonist repeatedly and then, when [[RapeAndSwitch he begins doing the same thing to other students]], they cover it all up to preserve their reputation and then kick him out.
* The ''Literature/{{Ravenor}}'' short story ''Playing Patience'' features the Kindred Youth Scholam, a seemingly respectable institution that takes in orphans from the slums and gives them a home and an education. In reality, the whole place is a front for laundering children and young adults into the hands of criminals for nefarious purposes. Ravenor shuts the place down as part of an investigation.
* In ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'' a combination of customs, and circumstance turns the Temple orphanage into this. The children are usually fed with leftovers and gifts from the Noble-blood Blue Priests, but a recent purge of the nobility has resulted in a recall of most of those, leaving precious few left in the temple. Worse, a custom that doesn't even consider the youngest orphans ''people'' until they hit baptism age means that by the time Myne stumbles upon the orphanage, the remainder are literally starving to death. It's telling that Myne putting them to work on her paper-making business is considered an ''improvement'' because the money she pays them can go to their own care.
* ''Literature/{{Momo}}'': Momo is an orphan who lives in a ruined amphitheater on the outskirts of the city. The neighboring families keep her supplied with food and other essentials, but she refuses to have anything to do with official social services because she previously lived in an orphanage that had bars on the windows and daily beatings, and doesn't want to end up in another.
* ''Literature/TheMissingPieceOfCharlieOReilly'': Before the New York Asylum for Orphaned Children burned down, it was a miserable, filthy place where the children were barely fed enough to stay alive.
* Oscar from ''Literature/TheRealBoy'' has vague but horrible memories of his time at the Children's Home before Caleb took him in when he was six. He's blocked out most of the details, and trying to remember anything upsets him.

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': The Orphanage where Five grew up hasn't been described in any detail yet, but kids don't run away from such homes to try and survive alone on the streets at age 12 for no reason. And even without any conscious memories of the place, her reaction to the plan of having her sent to a group home after [[spoiler: the rest of the crew of the Raza was arrested and thrown into prison]] was basically: "I'd rather go to (adult, high security) prison instead."
* On an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', a wealthy man embroiled in a custody dispute is found murdered in his home. It eventually comes out that he was killed by his adopted sons, over whom he was engaged in a custody dispute: they had been raised in an Eastern European Orphanage of Fear, and their mother had tried to turn them against him by telling them that he would send them back if he got custody.
* Not orphanages per se, but the group homes for unplaced foster children on ''Series/TheWire'' are complete hellholes. Said to be the source of Laetitia's anger, and later shown to be where [[spoiler: Randy]]'s youthful innocence goes to die.
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Day of the Moon" featured one of these, with {{Mind Rape}}d single occupant, and "GET OUT NOW" [[RoomFullOfCrazy scrawled all over the walls]] for extra goodness. [[spoiler:Oh, and it's full of sleeping Silents on the ceiling.]] Made even worse later when you realize the little girl living there was [[spoiler:young Melody Pond/River Song.]]
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Granny Goodness gets another mention for her orphanage in "Abandoned", St. Louise's Orphanage. The place is made of pure horror, as scared young girls are psychologically abused (and it's heavily implied if not outright stated that they are beaten as well) and forcibly re-programmed into sadistic soldiers-in-training to pave the way for Darkseid's coming invasion of the Earth, sometimes by being blood-thirsty assassins, but sometimes by becoming [[TheMole sleeper agents]] and penetrating the Earth's upper institutions to secretly spy on them and destabilize them for Darkseid, the revelation of which ends up being ParanoiaFuel among the good guys in-universe. What makes it even scarier is the possibility that St. Louise's used to be a regular orphanage until Granny Goodness showed up one day and [[TyrantTakesTheHelm took over.]] When [[spoiler: Tess]] rediscovers the place--which is where she grew up--a whole montage of very disturbing repressed memories play out on-screen. What makes the place even more disturbing is that Granny Goodness is very much a BitchInSheepsClothing, and FauxAffablyEvil to boot. She forcibly (and, by all accounts, ''painfully'') erases the memories of the girls in her care so that they have no memory of their ParentalAbandonment. And if she is forced to let one of her girls leave the orphanage, as is what happened in [[spoiler: Tess]]'s case, she also erases their memory of the orphanage completely. The entire first few years of [[spoiler: Tess's]] life were ''completely eradicated'', only popping back up as nightmares after Granny wanted her back ''twenty-five years later.''
* In ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', a mother who is completely paranoid raised her children to believe that they would go to an Orphanage Of Fear where they would be raped and murdered if they were ever taken away from her. Her son is then convinced that they were going there so she has him kill his brother and then commit suicide, but for him, the gun jammed. Adding to this, she even tells them that their older brother wound up in such an orphanage where he was killed. In fact, the brother in question went to an OrphanageOfLove and came out of is reasonably well-adjusted, and even came back to shred their mother's lies.
* On ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Emma [[spoiler: and Pinocchio]] end up in one of these when they're transported from the fairy tale world to the real world.
* In ''Series/BarneyMiller'', Jilly Pappalardo has similar feelings about the [[https://www.omh.ny.gov/omhweb/facilities/nyccc/facility.htm New York City Children's Centers]]. "I'm not going back to Children's Center. I hate it, I don't want to live there, you get pushed around and the food ''stinks!''" Sgt. Fish's reply: "If I can take it, you can take it."

* In the back-story for ''Series/StreetJustice'', shortly after losing his parents and getting separated from Marine veteran Adam in Vietnam, Grady grew up in one of these, whose caretaker frequently beat on him. Grady ran away from there eventually...but unfortunately he wound up in prison, where he would spend a significant portion of time before eventually making his way to the United States.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': In "The Stork Job", the Leverage team end up rescuing all the kids from one of these in Serbia (the orphanage was being used as a front from arms dealers). This wasn't the original mission, but Parker refuses to leave the kids behind.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie'': Annie started out in one of these. In the comic strip, the orphanage director was named Miss Asthma, not Miss Hannigan as in the musical and subsequent film adaptations.
[[/folder]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' gives us the orphanage run by the Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils. Just how bad can you make an orphanage? Well, if it's run by one of the [[OmnicidalManiac Deathlords]]... and ''she's'' the one who made them orphans in the first place... ''and'' she's basically using it as a [[WeHaveReserves backup plan]] in case her [[CreepyChild favored Deathknight]] gets killed in the field... pretty damn bad.
** Not to mention that the previous orphans in the orphanage were the parents of the current ones, and the toys the orphans play with are made out of their parents' souls. It's not very nice in general.
*** Oh, and another thing? She started this after the Great Contagion...which is to say, ''several centuries before the first Deathknights''. Before then? [[ForTheEvulz She was just entertaining herself.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'''s Schola Progenium is a system of orphanages run by the [[ChurchMilitant Ecclesiarchy]] which train orphans to fill various offices in the Imperial military, especially [[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissars]] and [[AmazonBrigade Sisters of Battle]]. Harsh discipline and brutal training methods are commonplace, and deaths, while meant to be avoided, are expected and not uncommon.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'' is definitely one of the most famous examples of this, perhaps surpassed only by ''Literature/OliverTwist''. One of the musical's most famous songs, "It's the Hard Knock Life", is all about this trope.

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal's]] Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights 2010 features a house called The Orfanage, which is a prequel to the popular Screamhouse series revolving around the Caretaker, Albert Caine. The Orfanage features his daughter, fan favorite ex-icon Cindy, before her adoption in an orphanage where she and the other students were tortured until Cindy's latent pyrokinetic powers allowed her to free the children and burn down the orphanage. The house has you going through the burnt-down remains of the orphanage, facing the (ghosts of?) children and Cindy, with a spectacular scene involving fire roaring next to the window you walk by.
[[/folder]]

* The Shalebridge Cradle from ''VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows''. The Cradle started out as a dedicated orphanage. Then when financial problems struck, it was sold to people who turned it into an asylum for the criminally insane. Out of the goodness of their hearts, the doctors allowed the orphans to remain there. So to clarify, The Cradle was an Orphanage of Fear and a BedlamHouse ''simultaneously''. Then it burned down with both children and lunatics inside. Then the building [[GeniusLoci developed sentience]] and imprisoned the souls of the children and inmates inside itself so it could play with them... For all eternity.
* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' cult ran one of these, where they brainwashed the children into new members. One of the areas you go to in ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' is subtly implied to be part of it -- a mysterious cylindrical outbuilding alluded to in earlier games, then again here in case you forgot.
* ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose''. Gods. It's ''far, far worse'' than even the one in ''Film/TheOrphanage''. Originally its evil was pretty banal. [[spoiler:Then came Wendy, and brought in a good helping of imaginative cruelty.]]
* ''VideoGame/BattleArenaToshinden 3'' makes mention of the Organization's brands of orphanages set up all across the world. Their function? A shelter for children and youths, and a holding place for their blood required black occult magic rituals at night. FridgeHorror abound.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' has Jack's orphanage. Jack was creepy ''before'' he got his hands on the Emigre Manuscript. Now he sees the kids as ingredients. Unfortunately for him, one of the kids sent to it is a friend of Halley's, and Halley gets Yuri and allies involved... If you visit the orphanage after the story events, you learn it's now run by a woman who plans to make it an OrphanageOfLove.
* ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'' features the ultimate Orphanage Of Fear, full of undead psychopathic children, a butcher with no feet, and sad children in sacks who explode.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', Honorhall Orphanage in Riften is run by a terrible old woman called Grelod [[IronicNickname the Kind]]. She constantly gives speeches to the kids about how worthless they are and that they won't be adopted, ever. The kids themselves tell you that beatings are frequent and snooping around the building reveals that there is a cell with shackles on the wall. The kind normally seen in prisons. Grelod also starves the children by giving them only ''one'' meal a day in the afternoon. ''She even keeps them from being adopted'' -- she's that much of a power-hungry ControlFreak. It's so bad, that one of the kids, Aventus Aretino, escaped and tried to recruit [[MurderInc the Dark Brotherhood]] to kill Grelod. [[spoiler:You can pretend to be from the Brotherhood and kill Grelod yourself (though nothing's stopping you from slicing the evil old bat into hamburger before even meeting Aretino, [[DevelopersForesight which the latter will even comment on]]). The children will ''cheer'' and praise the Dark Brotherhood. Needless to say, the Dark Brotherhood is not happy about this, but it does mark the beginning of the Dark Brotherhood questline. It is the only character in the game that you can murder in plain sight and not be bothered by guards afterwards as your Riften bounty will not increase for it. She is [[AssholeVictim disliked]] that much by everyone.]]
** Once you install the ''Hearthfire'' DLC and [[spoiler:kill Grelod]], management of the orphanage will be taken by her assistant, Constance Michel. Michel is a much nicer person then Grelod was and is willing to make the orphanage better, allowing you to adopt children from it.
* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' there is the Little Sister Orphanage, which is really a front for little girls to be used in science experiments.

* ''VideoGame/ArcTheLad 2'' gives us the White House: unlike most exemples of this trope, the kids are not openly mistreated by uncaring or sadistic by the people in charge (in fact, [[spoiler: one of its former managers, Vilmer is shown to be a descent, loving grandfather]]), but when the employees are pretty much on [[EldritchAbomination Cthulhu's]] payroll, you know that the facility hides very dark, horrific secrets, and oh boy does it not disappoint: the orphans (which were forcingly taken from their family at best, [[spoiler: witnesses of their families slaughter and people's genocide at worst]]) are kept complient by [[spoiler: being forced to take "control medecines" suspicously similar to rape drugs which pretty much end up wiping their memories -the protagonist had amnesia for the better part of a decade thanks to them-]], until they are dissected (chairs equipped with huge rotating saws are found in the basement)... if they are lucky: if they are unlucky, the paid-by-the-local-Cthulhu scientists overseeing the orphanage will use [[spoiler: a mix of [[{{Magitek}} genetic engineering and dark magics]] which will turn the kids into sentient monsters whose free-will will then be overridden by powerful mind-control devices]].

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', after her parents died in an accident, [[spoiler: Miyoko Tanishi]] aka the BigBad [[spoiler:Miyo Takano]] spent some time in a horrific orphanage in the middle of the woods as part of her StartOfDarkness. The orphanage is run by bitter ex-military staff, who take joy in torturing and sexually abusing the children, including subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishments or deaths, like making Tanishi lick a toilet after a soldier just defecated in it or feeding a kid to hungry chickens. Fortunately, Tanishi was able to call for help and was adopted by [[spoiler:a man named Takano]], but we never find out what happened to the orphanage or the other kids…
* Dr. Bumby's Home For Wayward Children in ''Videogame/AliceMadnessReturns'' has to be the worst "orphanage" in videogame history. In a normal OrphanageOfFear the kids get neglected, emotionally abused, beaten, and probably half-starved. Here, their caretaker and therapist [[spoiler: brainwashes them and then pimps them as child prostitutes.]] And not even very secretly. The little plaque says it all: "Earn Your Keep."
* ''Gunhouse'': While the Caretaker does care for her charges (in an aloof and distant sort of way), the fact that the orphanage is constantly under attack by various bizarre monsters bent on kidnapping the children definitely pushes it into this territory.
* In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'': has the mysterious institution, known only as The Orphanage, where [[spoiler:agents of the Masters experiment on kidnapped orphans, you have the choice to [[BurnTheOrphanage burn it down]].]] High-level characters can open their own, and act as TheFagin to its residents.
* The White Orphanage from ''VideoGame/WildARMs4'' was actually a laboratory where war orphans were experimented on to make them more compatible with ARMS. Given Yulie was there from around the age of five, you can see why she's so downbeat and apologetic.

* St. Martha's Orphanage from the backstories of the Vestal and the Runaway from the ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' games seems to have been this, especially if the backstory of the Runaway from ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon2'', who had to escape the nuns who ran the place after they took to ''branding her with hot irons'', is any indication.

[[folder:Web Animation]]

* A number of the main characters of WebComic/{{Dreamkeepers}} live in an orphanage run by Grunn, an angry shark who hates kids [[spoiler: and is probably only doing it as a cover.]]
* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'': If [[spoiler: [[http://hyenafu.tumblr.com/post/157694646799/i-usually-try-to-avoid-answering-questions-about Tsavo's backstory]]]] is anything to go by, {{Hell}} has one of these.

* Pinkie Pie from ''WebVideo/FriendshipIsWitchcraft'' lived in at least an emotionally abusive one as a filly. It left her with deep insecurities about being Romani and being an [[FantasticRacism Earth Pony]].
* Monobear's Home for Orphaned Bastards in ''Roleplay/DanganRoleplay: [[Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} Nick]] [[VersusTitle VS]] [[Creator/CartoonNetwork CN]]'' has a sadist take over [[WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends Foster's Home]] and turn it into a [[DeadlyGame murderschool]].

* As we learned from ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode "The Chipette Story", Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor spend their early life days in this trope in Australia with their best friend Olivia. In this orphanage, the caretaker Miss Grudge would try to force some of the orphans to sing to make more money, but [[HollywoodToneDeaf they all have rotten singing voices]]. When Olivia is lucky enough to be adopted, Grudge kidnaps and locks the Chipettes away so she won't be able to take them with her, intending to make money off the three little chipmunk girls. They barely manage to escape and then hide in a ship sailing to the USA...
* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad,'' Francine used to live in an orphanage before her Chinese parents adopted her. In that orphanage, any time she tried to use her left hand (being naturally left-handed) the nuns would smack her with a fish. Which is a reference to a now rarer practice of forcing people to be right-handed that was once common in Catholic schools, and also happened in some secular schools.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "Mom and Dad Have a Great Big Fight", Arthur and D.W. fear their parents may be getting a divorce and worry that they will be abandoned. Cue ''Literature/OliverTwist''[=-inspired=] ImagineSpot.

* ''WesternAnimation/BooBoomTheLongWayHome'': In episode 20, Boo-Boom and a group of war orphans are forcefully taken from a red cross camp and placed in one of these. The place, a partly destroyed rundown building, is run by a group of very strict female soldiers who enforce an iron discipline, and the building houses an industrial laundromat where the orphans are put to work. Fortunately, thanks to Boo-Booms' animal friends, they are all able to escape and the place itself is burned to the ground.
* The ChristmasSpecial ''WesternAnimation/TheChristmasTree'' is set in one these, where the lady in charge gambles away the orphanage's money on a regular basis. It's so bad, the children latch onto a huge pine tree for emotional comfort.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Leela grew up in Cookieville, a minimum-security orphanarium. With a warden. Who used to tell her, daily, that she's worthless and no one will ever love her. And there are bars on the windows. By her own account, the best day ever of her entire life was Double Soup Tuesday at the orphanarium.
** Although she is shown laughing about it all later, with the very same warden, and looks at this time of her life with some fondness.
--->'''Leela''': Just like old times. Gosh. The bars on the windows seemed so much thicker back then. Mr. Vogel? Remember me?\\
'''Warden''': Leela! You're worthless and no one will ever love you!\\
''(They laugh and hug)''\\
'''Leela''': You used to say that all the time!\\
'''Warden''': Oh, those were happier days.
** Also, there was an episode where Warden Vogel tried to take the kids ice-skating in Central Park and seemed genuinely saddened when he was forced to cancel the field trip.
* The orphanage in Tigress's backstory in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda: Secrets of the Furious Five'' qualifies... but not in the way you might think. The orphanage in question did have darkness underneath its brighter front, but rather than the traditional EvilOrphanageLady enforcing fear in the orphanage, ''Tigress herself was the source of this fear'', for despite the young cub being genuinely innocent in her motives for the most part, everyone else feared her because of her fangs, claws, temper, and overall strength... and she was left alone and ashamed, but with some help by Master Shifu, Tigress managed to learn to control herself and turned the place into an OrphanageOfLove.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'', Flapjack gets sent to one in "Oh, You Animal"... and its another unique variation. The caretaker was actually a good person and just wanted to protect, even adopt Flapjack. But what made the orphanage horrifying was the fact that the other "orphaned boys" were actually grown men disguising as little boys so they could have free meals and a roof over their head, and Flapjack being the only real kid in the place, is bullied mercilessly.
* The opening credits of ''WesternAnimation/TheReplacements'' imply that Riley and Todd used to live in one of these.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': Sherman comes from one, before being adopted by Mr. Peabody.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'', Otto lived in an orphanage ran by a cruel nun who used the children that were in her care for cheap labor and kept them well underfed and is shown to be able to willingly physically harm children with a whip.

[[Film/Annie1982 No one cares for you a smidge when you're living in an Orphanage]] of Fear. You will usually be presided over by gaunt, dour women -- often [[NunTooHoly brutal nuns]] -- with nasty sneers. Your chores are long, grueling, and mandatory; toys and other amusements are strictly forbidden. You can expect to be spanked, smacked, and otherwise "punished" frequently; no matter what you do, you can't please the EvilOrphanageLady in charge. The food is usually unidentifiable, mushy, and foul-smelling if it's solid at all; you may have nothing to eat but thin, probably cold vegetable broth. You will be in bed by 8 and up by 5, and you will never, ever, ''ever'' be allowed to have ''any'' fun. Your only hope of escaping is either to get adopted, find your real parents (after all, they're probably [[HesJustHiding only hiding]]) or simply run away. Or [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed kill everyone/destroy the place]].

In darker and more adult-oriented versions, the people directing the orphanage will be downright criminal or insane; sometimes secretly enslaving the children as unpaid labor and punishing them harshly or even tortuously if they fail, refuse or for no reason at all. Other times, the directors are using the orphanage as a cover for their evil {{cult}}, using the children as {{Human Sacrifice}}s to appease [[EldritchAbomination their subject of worship]]. And those are if you're ''lucky''. Sometimes, the orphanage directors like to do [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil the unthinkable]]...

The opposite of an Orphanage of Fear is the OrphanageOfLove -- a place where you will be cuddled, given plenty of toys, read to before bed, and have all your boo-boos kissed, even if you never get adopted. Although you will rarely find the series' KidHero thrust into one of these -- right off the bat, anyway -- a good way to make a character seem kind or loving is to put them in charge of an OrphanageOfLove.

Orphanages have been largely phased out in the western world, but they are still in use in parts of Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, and parts of North America have them if there are no foster homes. Compare BoardingSchoolOfHorrors. Sadly, both institutions are still TruthInTelevision. Read up on conditions in Victorian orphanages some time; current group homes are not always significantly better. Modern orphanages are usually in disrepair. Also compare DepartmentOfChildDisservices. The ultimate setting to invoke KidsVersusAdults, especially when the kids want/have to [[SavingTheOrphanage save the orphanage from evil overrulers]]. Such a conflict can be terminated by the kids [[BurnTheOrphanage burning the Orphanage]]. See also JuvenileHell, which is about children being imprisoned for criminal offenses, but plays out in a similar way.

* [[ActionGirl Mylene]] from the anime ''Manga/ZeroZeroNineOne'' (a HotterAndSexier spin-off from ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'') was placed into a teenage girls' version of this, after her parents died trying to escape the [[UsefulNotes/BerlinWall "Eastern Bloc"]].
* CreepyTwins Hansel and Gretel from ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' grew up in a Romanian version of this trope. This would have been bad enough for them, but after the Romanian government was overthrown and the orphanages were shut down, where they went next was [[HarmfulToMinors far]], [[SnuffFilm FAR]] worse.
* In ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'', [[AllThereInTheManual the Hurricane Live videos and other extra material]] reveal this to be Priss's background, and the source of her rebellious nature.
* The main characters in the Prequel story in The Canis series lived in one since it's a front for human trafficking.
* ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs''
** During his childhood in the orphanage, Nakajima Atsushi was [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer shamefully singled out for the most mundane things and then tortured relentlessly for just existing]]. He was starved, bullied, and beaten until his self-esteem was crushed into fine powder. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that the Headmaster did this in hopes of toughening Atsushi in preparation for facing the even crueler real world, but that doesn't erase the horrendous childhood Atsushi had.]]
** It turns out that [[spoiler:the Headmaster]] was in one of these himself as a child. And it was said that it made what Atsushi went through seem like ''nothing'' in comparison.

* Though it varies by personal Fanon, ''Manga/DeathNote'''s Wammy's House can qualify - the place is basically set up to produce the ultimate TykeBomb, after all, which is bound to be an unpleasant process. ''LightNovel/{{Another Note}}'' tells us that [[DrivenToSuicide it doesn't work out so well for all of the kids]] L, Near, Matt, and Mello all seem pretty content with their upbringing, and L's absolute trust toward Watari would imply that Wammy's is something of an OrphanageOfLove; however, all four of them have their [[AmbiguousDisorder not]]-[[LackOfEmpathy so]]-[[HotBlooded normal]] traits. Then we get the ones like [[DeathByOriginStory A]] and [[SerialKiller Beyond]] [[IJustWantToBeYou Birthday]]...

* Lucy/Nyuu[[spoiler: /Kaede]] from ''Manga/ElfenLied'' grew up in one of these. It wouldn't have been so bad except for [[KidsAreCruel the torment Lucy was subjected to by the other orphans]] for being different. She would eventually [[spoiler:[[BewareTheNiceOnes snap out and murder a room full of the little hellions into literal bloody paste]] after [[MoralEventHorizon they beat a dog she had started caring for to death right in front of her and made her watch]], with the cherry on top being [[FalseFriend the girl she thought she could entrust the secret of her taking care of a dog,]] this is shone when, as her "friend" is crying after the boys mention she told them about her dog, a [[CrocodileTears wicked smile can be seen beneath the crying facade.]]]].

* Kinderheim 511, from ''Manga/{{Monster}}.'' It was a heartless and abusive attempt to breed the perfect soldier, through severe physical and psychological abuse and neglect. It meets its end when [[spoiler: almost every single person kills themselves in a massive fight, instigated by none other than Johan]]. The children would do nice things for each other, in a desperate attempt to be remembered. ''[[MindRape Because they were starting to forget who they were.]]''

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': At the start of the story, Anya was living in a clandestine orphanage run by a sleazy FatBastard guy who seemed pretty eager to get rid of as many kids as possible, before she was adopted by Loid.
* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'': All the future Saints had to deal with this at the Kido Fundation. They're taken away from normal orphanages by force (the one where Seiya was pretty much kidnapped from is a downright OrphanageOfLove, in example), [[TrainingFromHell forced to train all day long]], are beaten by Tatsumi if they step out of line, seen as mere objects and playthings for Saori (who was a SpoiledBrat at the time) and the place has electric fences, dogs and security guards. Afterwards, they are sent to Training Grounds where 90% of them died at.
* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' features one in the back story of Koutarou Amon, who was raised in a Catholic Orphanage. On the surface, it was an OrphanageOfLove run by a kind-hearted Russian Priest that loved Amon like his own son. But in truth, Donato Porpora was actually a sadistic Ghoul that enjoyed feasting on [[ChildEater children]] and used the excuse that they had been adopted to cover up their deaths. After Amon uncovered the truth, [[spoiler: Donato kept the boy at his side and had him assist in murdering the other children]]. Eventually, the CCG discovered the church and defeated Donato.
* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': [[TheDragon Legato Bluesummers]] has a manga backstory that implies this was a stage of his life, though he could have been in a lot of circumstances before being made a [[SexSlave catamite]].
* ''Music/{{Tsukipro}}'''s Issei and Ichiru were raised in an OrphanageOfLove, more or less, so when they get cast in a play with a setting like this, they're miffed at the stereotype and ask for it to be changed.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Cletus Kasady, the villain better known as ComicBook/{{Carnage}}, was sent to St. Estes Home for Boys after testifying against his abusive father for killing his mother. [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed He didn't take it very well]]. According to his own narrative in one comic, Kasady's father was sent to jail (and possibly executed) for murdering his mother, who was trying to kill Kasady - though it was later revealed she was trying to protect him. Of course, he testified ''against'' his dad to seal his fate, and the reason mummy wanted to kill him was because he was testing power tools on her poodle. The poor kid was then sent to live with his grandmother, whom he pushed down the stairs. Something suggests the orphanage was not exactly to blame.
* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El grew up in Midvale Orphanage after losing her parents and crashing into Earth in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton1959''. Although she didn't get into details, in ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' she stated that she hated her life in the orphanage, felt very lonely, and was extremely grateful when the Danvers adopted her and she escaped that place in ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl''.
* ''ComicBook/NewGods'':
** Apokolips' Happiness Home, run by Granny Goodness. In ''spades''. Scott Free (Mister Miracle) grew up in (and broke out of) one of these in his first great act of escape art.
** The B. O. Goodley Orphanage, Granny Goodness's Metropolis base in ''Guardians of Metropolis''. According to the Newsboy Legion, it was an Orphanage of Fear ''before'' the forces of Apokolips got hold of it.
* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': Mis Pritchard's orphanage in a Max Mercury story set in 1910s New York. Mrs P hates children but gets money from the city to raise them. She ''also'' gets a cut from child-hating toymaker Archimedes Schott, for supplying him with cheap labour. And then she takes the kids' wages as well. When Schott tells her he's going to burn down his factory, because Max has pressurised him into giving the kids more rights, she decides to send them to work that day anyway. (And yes, Archimedes looks a lot like his presumed descendent, Winslow.)
* The Creator/ECComics story "Halloween" is set in one of these: though the direct childcare person is desperately trying to turn it into an OrphanageOfLove, the management tells her there simply isn't enough money for decent food, clothing, lights...and certainly not a jack-o-lantern! [[spoiler: Naturally the manager is revealed as having kept two-thirds of the orphanage's income for his own personal benefit...and then [[DecapitationPresentation the children get their jack-o-lantern]].]]
* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The State Home for Foundlings in Nebraska that Cyclops ended up living in for a large point in his childhood. We don't know for certain how many of the other orphans actually existed, but we do know that his roommate was the mental projection of the man running the place who had an unhealthy obsession with him. The children were experimented on, had their memories wiped, and had mental suggestions placed in their brains, which is implied to be the reason why any real children bullied young Scott mercilessly. The director actually stopped several attempts to get children adopted and wiped the minds of teachers who suggested it (he is implied to have outright murdered a couple who wanted to adopt Scott) and the other adults were just as bad as the children.
* ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers: Bulleteer'': Madame Eva Martinette's Bleakdale Home for Bereaved Children was run by an abusive woman, and given that Sara was only a child in appearance by the time she was forcibly sent there due to her [[OlderThanTheyLook lack of aging]] the fact that she ran away is no surprise.

* Starting [[http://barnabas930.livejournal.com/18849.html in this chapter]], barnabus930's Dawn-centric ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fic "American Girls" invokes a special (read:[[TheDarkSide Black Magic Powered]]) breed of Orphanage of Fear in Radclif's Home for Wayward Youths.
* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' fanfic [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/7713979/chapters/17579371 "Stronger Together"]] [[Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]]'s cover story is that she spent eighteen years trapped in a completely understaffed orphanage after her parents' deaths before finding her cousin. [[Comicbook/LoisLane Lois]] asked if it was "one of those Dickens wet dream orphanages".
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' fanfiction tends to use this since if no one cared about Naruto, he would have had to have gone to an orphanage due to being an orphan. It's not known whether there was an actual Orphanage of Fear in the series, but [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer given the status of Jinchuuriki]], it doesn't seem at all unlikely. Not to mention, he was living ''by himself'' at the age of like twelve at the beginning of the series--it certainly seems to imply there was a place he couldn't get away from fast enough.

* Within the fandom for ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', many fanfiction writers take advantage of the fact that Scootaloo of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who accompanies the younger sisters of two other characters has no [[InvisibleParents visible family]] to portray her as an orphan. As such, Scootaloo is frequently depicted as either living in one of these or having run away to Ponyville in order to avoid living in one. This, combined with stories about Scootaloo having abusive parents have resulted in the creation of an entire subgenre within the fandom dubbed "Scootabuse". In contrast, many "Scootalove" stories have Rainbow Dash adopting Scootaloo.
* The WebComic/{{Homestuck}} fanfiction [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/514097/chapters/906972?view_adult=true He Has A Name]] has Dave grow up in a particularly nasty example. Not only are the staff oppressive and dickish, but the children there are also being used as prostitutes. In Dave's case, this means that while staying there he was raped ''every night of his life from the age of about six'' and ended up a CuteMute from the trauma.

* Starlight Glimmer's FreudianExcuse in the MLP:FIM canon is expanded in the ''Fanfic/AftermathOfTheGames'' Universe to involve this; Starlight was raised in an abusive orphanage where the staff never bothered to provide the foals other than the basic necessities, banned any of them from having personal possessions, and would [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment take meals away]] and [[DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff paddle them]] even [[DisproportionateRetribution for the tiniest amount of misbehavior]]. The only one who actually cared about her for the first nine years of her life was another orphan and her only friend Sunburst, who after getting his cutie mark, was sent to Canterlot to study magic. Starlight NeverGotToSayGoodbye because she accidentally overslept the day he left, and the staff showed her NoSympathy for her loss. She never heard from him again because [[spoiler: he died in a freak accident at the school]], and she blamed his Cutie Mark for it, leading to creating "Our Town". [[spoiler: When Princess Twilight was left with no choice but to [[{{RetGone}} wipe the villainous Starlight out of existence]] [[RedemptionRejection when she refused any and all chances of redemption]], she went to the filly Starlight shortly after Sunburst abandoned her and offered her the role as her personal student. It didn't take too much convincing because Starlight would have done anything to get out of the orphanage at that point]].
** [[spoiler: Unlike other stories involving this trope, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Twilight didn't ignore the abuse that was dished out by Starlight's former caretakers]]; After getting Starlight settled into the present time, she used her authority to arrest the entire staff for child abuse, then hired trustworthy caretakers to change it for the better]].
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8252393/4/The-Bond-of-the-Orphans The Bond of the Orphans]]'' Harry and Laura end up at Draygone House, a decrepit establishment with substandard food and a matron who's unaffectionately known as "The Dragon."

* In ''WesternAnimation/WakkosWish'', Yakko, Wakko, and Dot lived in one of these for a time, until it was shut down by Baron Von Plotz during his merciless taxation. In their own words (well, song), they were fed inedible gruel, the beds were broken and painful to sleep on, and the taps ran "hot and cold dirt". Ironically, they actually ''miss'' the orphanage, because [[FromBadToWorse homeless life is even worse.]]

* ''Film/{{Sparrows}}'', starring Mary Pickford, is about a horrific "baby farm" in which unwanted children are fed barely enough to keep them alive while being used as slave labor.
* ''Film/DickTracy:'' Downplayed. The Kid is constantly trying to run away whenever there's any talk of sending him to the orphanage. Once he actually gets sent there, though, the food isn't very good but he's otherwise treated okay.

* The Spanish horror movie ''El orfanato'' ("Film/TheOrphanage"). The movie is actually about a woman returning to an orphanage years after she grew up there. Although according to her, she was actually happy at the orphanage, and all the kids saw each other as one big happy family. Until they got on [[spoiler: Benigna]]'s bad side, that is.

* In Sam Gayton's ''Lilliput'', Finn was an orphan at one of these, ironically called "The House of Safekeeping". The clocks there were designed to run quickly during the orphans' free time, and slowly during their work time. Christmas Day was forty minutes long there.
* In ''Albertine and the House of the Thousand Wonders'' by Frank Reifenberg and Jan Strathmann, the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Children's Happiness Home]] where the heroine lives pretty much embodies the trope. Though the headmistress has her favorites, they aren't particularly happy either. The kids are forced to ''paint the lawn green'' to make the orphanage look at least halfway decent.

* [[TheDragon Legato Bluesummers]] of ''Manga/TriGun'' has a manga backstory that implies this was a stage of his life, though he could have been in a lot of circumstances before being made a [[SexSlave catamite]].

* Seto and Mokuba Kaiba from ''Anime/YuGiOh'' lived in one of these after their parents' deaths, complete with facing bullying from other kids. Between that and their adoption by the ''highly'' abusive Gozaburo, it's no wonder that Kaiba grew up to be such a {{Jerkass}}.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Cletus Kasady, the villain better known as ComicBook/{{Carnage}}, was sent to St. Estes Home for Boys after testifying against his abusive father for killing his mother. [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed He didn't take it very well]]. According to his own narrative in one comic, Kasady's father was sent to jail (and possibly executed) for murdering his mother, who was trying to kill Kasady - though it was later revealed she was trying to protect him. Of course, he testified ''against'' his dad to seal his fate, and the reason mummy wanted to kill him was because he was testing power tools on her poodle. The poor kid was then sent to live with his grandmother, whom he pushed down the stairs. Something suggests the orphanage was not exactly to blame.
* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El grew up in Midvale Orphanage after losing her parents and crashing into Earth in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton''. Although she didn't get into details, in ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' she stated that she hated her life in the orphanage, felt very lonely, and was extremely grateful when the Danvers adopted her and she escaped that place in ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl''.

* The "Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans" in ''Literature/ADrownedMaidensHair'' by Laura Amy Schlitz.

* ''Brotherhood of the Rose'' by David Morrell. Although the protagonists aren't mistreated in their government-run orphanage, all the children are indoctrinated to become patriotic CannonFodder for the US military.

* ''Thursday's Child'', by Creator/NoelStreatfeild. St. Luke's Orphanage is run by "Matron" who steals from the children to enrich herself and is physically abusive. After she leaves, it becomes an Orphanage of Love, due to the influence of Lady Corkberry.
* ''Faraway Dream'', by Jane Flory. Seafarers Safe Harbor for Orphans is run by Mrs. Dempey, who is physically abusive and lazy.
* The "boarding school" to which Charlotte Sophia is sent first in Creator/EdwardGorey's ''The Hapless Child''.
* The "Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans" in ''A Drowned Maiden's Hair'' by Laura Amy Schlitz.
* "Thrift House", run by the corrupt and abusive Mrs. Spindletrap in ''The Silver Spoon of Solomon Snow'', by Kaye Umansky.

* Creator/AnaisNin describes one of these in her novella ''Children of the Albatross'', part of ''Cities of the Interior''. Djuna, a beautiful young woman with "enormous fairytale eyes", tells the story of how she grew up in one of these grim places. "The Watchman" was supposed to keep the girls within walls at night but would let them out for a few hours in return for sexual favors.

* The orphanage that Charlotte is sent to in ''Literature/TheHaplessChild'', though this is only played straight for her alone.

Orphanages have been largely phased out in the western world, but they are still in use in parts of Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, and parts of North America have them if there are no foster homes. Compare BoardingSchoolOfHorrors. Sadly, both institutions are still TruthInTelevision. Read up on conditions in Victorian orphanages some time; current group homes are not always significantly better. Modern orphanages are usually in disrepair. Also compare DepartmentOfChildDisservices. The ultimate setting to invoke KidsVersusAdults, especially when the kids want/have to [[SavingTheOrphanage save the orphanage from evil overrulers]]. Such a conflict can be terminated by the kids [[BurnTheOrphanage burning the Orphanage]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', Honorhall Orphanage in Riften is run by a terrible old woman called Grelod [[IronicNickname the Kind]]. She constantly gives speeches to the kids about how worthless they are and that they won't be adopted, ever. The kids themselves tell you that beatings are frequent and snooping around the building reveals that there is a cell with shackles on the wall. The kind normally seen in prisons. Grelod also starves the children by giving them only ''one'' meal a day in the afternoon. ''She even keeps them from being adopted'' -- she's that much of a power-hungry ControlFreak. It's so bad, that one of the kids, Aventus Aretiino, escaped and tried to recruit [[MurderInc the Dark Brotherhood]] to kill Grelod. [[spoiler:You can pretend to be from the Brotherhood and kill Grelod yourself (though nothing's stopping you from slicing the evil old bat into hamburger before even meeting Aretino, [[DevelopersForesight which the latter will even comment on]]). The children will ''cheer'' and praise the Dark Brotherhood. Needless to say, the Dark Brotherhood is not happy about this, but it does mark the beginning of the Dark Brotherhood questline. It is the only character in the game that you can murder in plain sight and not be bothered by guards afterwards as your Riften bounty will not increase for it. She is [[AssholeVictim disliked]] that much by everyone.]]

* Cletus Kasady, the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' villain better known as ComicBook/{{Carnage}}, was sent to St. Estes Home for Boys after testifying against his abusive father for killing his mother. [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed He didn't take it very well]]. According to his own narrative in one comic, Kasady's father was sent to jail (and possibly executed) for murdering his mother, who was trying to kill Kasady - though it was later revealed she was trying to protect him. Of course, he testified ''against'' his dad to seal his fate, and the reason mummy wanted to kill him was because he was testing power tools on her poodle. The poor kid was then sent to live with his grandmother, whom he pushed down the stairs. Something suggests the orphanage was not exactly to blame.
* Pre-Crisis Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} grew up in Midvale Orphanage after losing her parents and crashing into Earth. Although she didn't get into details, she has stated that she hated her life in the orphanage, felt very lonely, and was extremely grateful when the Danvers adopted her and she escaped that place.
* From the ''ComicBook/NewGods'', Apokolips' Happiness Home, run by Granny Goodness. In ''spades.''
** Scott Free (Mister Miracle) grew up in (and broke out of) one of these in his first great act of escape art.
** The B. O. Goodley Orphanage, Granny Goodness's Metropolis base in ''Guardians of Metropolis''. According to the Newsboy Legion, it was an Orphanage of Fear ''before'' the forces of Apokalips got hold of it.
*** It was; it appears in one [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Newsboys story.
* Mis Pritchard's orphanage in a ''[[Franchise/TheFlash Max Mercury]]'' story set in 1910s New York. Mrs P hates children but gets money from the city to raise them. She ''also'' gets a cut from child-hating toymaker Archimedes Schott, for supplying him with cheap labour. And then she takes the kids' wages as well. When Schott tells her he's going to burn down his factory, because Max has pressurised him into giving the kids more rights, she decides to send them to work that day anyway. (And yes, Archimedes looks a lot like his presumed descendent, Winslow.)
* ''The Orphanage'' by Carlos Gimenez is a comic detailing the author's childhood in a Spanish orphanage during the civil war. In between the fascist and child-hating teachers and their abusive indoctrination, the sadistic and child-hating caretakers, the half-blind and child-hating doctor, and the constant lack of food and water, it's pretty much the epitome of the trope.

* The State Home for Foundlings in Nebraska that Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} ended up living in for a large point in his childhood. We don't know for certain how many of the other orphans actually existed, but we do know that his roommate was the mental projection of the man running the place who had an unhealthy obsession with him. The children were experimented on, had their memories wiped, and had mental suggestions placed in their brains, which is implied to be the reason why any real children bullied young Scott mercilessly. The director actually stopped several attempts to get children adopted and wiped the minds of teachers who suggested it (he is implied to have outright murdered a couple who wanted to adopt Scott) and the other adults were just as bad as the children.

Orphanages have been largely phased out in the western world, but they are still in use in parts of Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, and parts of North America have them if there are no foster homes. Compare BoardingSchoolOfHorrors. Sadly, both institutions are still TruthInTelevision. Read up on conditions in Victorian orphanages some time; current group homes are not always significantly better. Modern orphanages are usually in disrepair. Also compare DepartmentOfChildDisservices.

* [[Literature/{{Sharpe}} Richard Sharpe]], from Bernard Cornwell's ''Sharpe'' series, grew up in the workhouse as a child. In one of the later books, it is shownthat despite ''twenty years and numerous battles'', Sharpe still has PTSD when he returns and faces the orphanage master. If that weren't enough, the children are served gruel. [[spoiler: Of course, he savagely murders said orphanage master... right in front of a little orphaned girl before proceeding to the main plot, so I guess the book brutally explores this trope front, back, and sideways.]]

* Lt. Richard Literature/{{Sharpe}} from Bernard Cromwell's ''Sharpe'' series grew up in this as a child. In the second book, it is written that despite ''twenty years and a battle regiment'', Sharpe still has PTSD when he returns and faces the orphanage master. If that weren't enough, the children are served gruel. [[spoiler: Of course, he savagely murders said orphanage master... right in front of a little orphaned girl no less before proceeding to the main plot, so I guess the second book brutally explores this trope front, back, and sideways.]]

* The Shalebridge Cradle from ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}: Deadly Shadows''. The Cradle started out as a dedicated orphanage. Then when financial problems struck, it was sold to people who turned it into an asylum for the criminally insane. Out of the goodness of their hearts, the doctors allowed the orphans to remain there. So to clarify, The Cradle was an Orphanage of Fear and a BedlamHouse ''simultaneously''. Then it burned down with both children and lunatics inside. Then the building [[GeniusLoci developed sentience]] and imprisoned the souls of the children and inmates inside itself so it could play with them... For all eternity.

* St. Martha's Orphanage from the backstories of the Vestal and the Runaway from the ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' games seems to have been this, especially if the backstory of the Runaway, who had to escape the nuns who ran the place after they took to ''branding her with hot irons'', is any indication.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'': The Racoon City Orphanage sells children to Umbrella Corporation as test subjects for their Bio-Organic Weapon development. After one kid escaped Umbrella and snuck batch into the orphanage, the staff ''massacred all kids in it'' [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure fearing contamination]].

* In the film ''Courage Mountain'', the main character and her friends are sent to an Orphanage of Fear when their boarding school is closed down because of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

* The Danish film ''The Day Will Come'' is about two brothers in the 1960's being placed in a boys' orphanage that also doubles as a boarding school. The headmaster and teachers are unsympathetic and beat the kids for almost anything, even yelling at the brothers and stuffing their faces into their food when they loudly cry at dinner after learning their sick mother passed away. In the end, the younger brother is able to get a former teacher (who was fired for interfering in their beatings) to help him get the orphanage investigated by an inspector. Sadly BasedOnATrueStory, with Denmark having a history of abusive orphanages throughout the 1940s to the 1970s.

* ''ComicBook/{{Bulleteer}}'': Madame Eva Martinette's Bleakdale Home for Bereaved Children was run by an abusive woman, and given that Sara was only a child in appearance by the time she was forcibly sent there due to her [[OlderThanTheyLook lack of aging]] the fact that she ran away is no surprise.

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', [[spoiler: Miyoko Tanishi]] aka the BigBad [[spoiler:Miyo Takano]] spent some time in an extreme version of this, as part of her StartOfDarkness. It's heavily implied that the kids are tortured and raped on a regular basis by the bitter ex-military staff. Ironically, this version does not use boney, scary-looking nuns of any sort, but instead uses tall, bulky, powerful, huge men who barely even hide their love of putting the children through hell. In the anime, when [[spoiler:Miyoko]] is [[spoiler:caught and given to the guard whose finger she had bitten]], it is heavily implied that he will either rape her or beat her to death, or both! [[spoiler:However, she is saved when Takano arrives to adopt her before the guard can truly lay a hand on her.]] In the manga, [[spoiler: [[ForcedToWatch she is shown the tortures all her teammates had gone through]] (one was even eaten to death by chickens),]] before she undergoes her actual punishment. Here, the guard [[spoiler:defecates into a toilet in front of her before shoving her head in, telling her to clean his crap with her mouth. He then proceeds to rape her, while keeping a sadistic and luscious grin on his face.]] She is later given to [[spoiler:Takano]], AFTER the disgusting punishment -- and according to [[spoiler:Miyo (then known as Miyoko)]] she didn't even get to shower or anything afterwards. Yeah, the manga really doesn't go easy on us.