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[[Parental Abandonment|Losing your parents]] is no fun. Depending on your circumstances (and the relative benevolence of your creator), you may end up with some clueless but good-natured [[Muggle Foster Parents]], or you could be [[Raised by Wolves]]. If you're ''really'' unlucky, though—or if you need an appropriately tragic backstory—you'll end up in an '''Orphanage of Fear'''.
No one cares for you a smidge when you're living in an '''Orphanage of Fear'''. You will usually presided over by gaunt, dour women with nasty sneers. Your chores are long, gruelling 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 lady 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 [[He's Just Hiding|only hiding]]), or simply run away. Or [[Where I Was Born and Razed|kill everyone/destroy the place]].
The opposite of an '''Orphanage of Fear''' is the [[Orphanage of Love]]—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' [[Kid Hero]] 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 [[Orphanage of Love]]. For some odd reason, the Orphanage of Fear ''never'' has the problems the Orphanage of Love has, like lack of funding and [[Dastardly Whiplash]] types trying to close it down.
Compare [[Boarding School of Horrors]]. Sadly, both institutions are still [[Truth in Television]]. Read up on conditions in Victorian orphanages some time; current ones are not always significantly better. Also compare [[Department of Child Disservices]].
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* An especially cruel version of this trope would be Kinderheim 511, from ''[[Monster (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 [[Complete Monster|Johan]]}}.
** To get an idea of how awful it was, the children would do nice things for each other, in a desperate attempt to be remembered. ''[[Mind Rape|Because they were starting to forget who they were.]]''
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== Comic Books ==
* Cletus Kasady, the ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' villain better known as Carnage was dumped in one of these after he killed his father for killing his mother (or was it the other way around?). [[Where I Was Born and Razed|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. 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 tells me the orphanage was not exactly to blame. (Then again, he's an [[Unreliable Narrator]].)
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== Fan Works ==
* Starting [http://barnabas930.livejournal.com/18849.html in this chapter], barnabus930's Dawn-centric ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' fic ''American Girls'' invokes a special (read: [[The Dark Side|Black Magic Powered]]) breed of Orphanage of Fear in Radclif's Home for Wayward Youths.
* ''[[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 [[All of the Other Reindeer|given the status of Jinchuuriki]], it doesn't seem at all unlikely.
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== Film ==
* The Spanish horror movie ''El orfanato'' ("[[The Orphanage]]"). 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.
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== Literature ==
* Lt. Richard [[Sharpe]] from 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.}}
* In the [[American Girl]] ''Samantha'' stories, Samantha's friend Nelly gets sent to one of these. Of course, she breaks out and is [[Happily Adopted|adopted by Sam's extraordinarily wealthy family]].
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** Pullman likes this trope—the Bolvangar installation in ''[[His Dark Materials|The Golden Compass]]'' is an especially nasty variation. Seems exactly like, if not an [[Orphanage of Love]], a fairly middle-of-the-road boarding school (except for being situated in the middle of the Arctic); functions as a ''laboratory facility''.
* The protagonist of the VC Andrews novel ''Child of Darkness'' begins the story in one of these.
* The Working House for Young Women, from the ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[
* [[Harry Potter]] inverts this - the [[Big Bad]] spends his early childhood in an orphanage, but since he was a [[Creepy Child]] his own antics ''turn'' the place into an Orphanage of Fear; aside from his crimes things would have been pretty good for a 1930's orphanage.
** 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 [[Door Step Baby|dumped on her doorstop]]. Harry's unspoken retort is that he'd rather live in an orphanage than with the Dursleys.
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{{quote|"Colder than space, charity can be," [Daniel] said [[Tranquil Fury|in the same soft voice]].}}
▲== Live Action TV ==
* On an episode of ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'', 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 ''[[The Wire]]'' 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.
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== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'': 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.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[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 [[Omnicidal Maniac|Deathlords]]... and ''she's'' the one who made them orphans in the first place... ''and'' she's basically using it as a [[We Have Reserves|backup plan]] in case her [[Creepy Child|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.
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== Theatre ==
* ''[[Annie]]'' is definitely one of the most famous examples of this, perhaps surpassed only by ''[[Oliver Twist]]''. One of the musical's most famous songs, "It's the Hard Knock Life", is all about this trope.
== Theme Parks ==
* Halloween Horror Nights 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.
== Video Games ==
* The Shalebridge Cradle from ''[[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 [[Bedlam House]] ''simultaneously''. Then it burned down with both children and lunatics inside. Then the building [[Genius Loci|developed sentience]] and imprisoned the souls of the children and inmates inside itself so it could play with them... For all eternity.
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* The orphanage in the Elven Alienage in ''[[Dragon Age]]''. It's an example because it was overrun by demons that massacred everyone inside, leaving nothing but insane ghosts.
** Oh no, it's much worse than that. The people in the orphanage were massacred during [[The Purge]] ordered by [[Complete Monster|Arl Howe]]. The demons and ghosts only arrived ''after'' the horrific bloodshed and lingering feelings of pain and rage tore a hole in the Veil.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' there is the Honorhall Orphanage, run by a terrible old woman called [[Non-Indicative Name| Grelod the ''Kind'']]. She constantly gives speeches to the kids about how worthless they are and that they wont 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 [[Control Freak]]. It's so bad, that one of the kids escaped and tried to recruit [[Murder, Inc.|The Dark Brotherhood]] to kill Grelod. {{spoiler|You can pretend to be from the Brotherhood and kill Grelod yourself. The children will ''cheer'' and praise the Dark Brotherhood. Needless to say, the Dark Brotherhood is not happy about this. If you want further proof of how vile she is, most times when you kill a civilian, the town watch will put a bounty on your head; this time, that won't happen. [[0% Approval Rating| Nobody in the local law enforcement cares]].}}
* In ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' there is the Little Sister Orphanage, which is really a front for little girls to be used in science experiments.
* [[Arc the Lad]] 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 [[Eldritch Abomination|Cthulhu's]] payroll, you know that the facility hides [[Nightmare Fuel|very dark, horrific secrets]], and oh boy does it not disapoint: 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 overriden by powerful mind-control devices}}.
==
* A number of the main characters of [http://dreamkeeperscomic.com/ Dreamkeepers] live in an orphanage run by Grunn, an angry shark who hates kids {{spoiler|is probably only doing it as a cover.}}
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[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 on this time of her life with some fondness.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:You Would Not Want to Live In Dex]]
[[Category:Fear Tropes]]
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[[Category:Orphaned Index]]
[[Category:Abuse Tropes]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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