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Benigna Escobedo is the main antagonist of the 2007 Spanish horror movie El orfanato (The Orphanage in English).
She was portrayed by the late Montserrat Carulla.
Biography[]
Benigna appears at the orphanage, which was bought by film protagonist Laura, the latter planning to reopen it. She introduces herself as a social worker, and starts a strange conversation about her adopted son Simon, about his illness (Simon is a carrier of HIV) and other incomprehensible things. Laura is furious by this conversation and kicks Begnina out. At night, Laura notices a noise in the coal's warehouse, goes there and discovers Benigna with a shovel, who runs away. Awake, Carlos, Laura's husband, does nothing, promising to call the police if Benigna reappears.
The next day, Simon mysteriously disappears. Benigna is suspected of having kidnapped Simon but nobody finds her. Six months after Simon's disappearance, Laura finds Benigna in the city with a stroller. Benigna notices Laura, runs away crossing the street and is run over by an ambulance. Benigna dies instantly.
Later, from the police, Laura learns that one of the workers in her orphanage, which she occupied when she was young, had a son with a disfigured face. This worker was Benigna. To hide his deformity, the boy wore a bag as a mask on his head and his mother tried not to show him to the other children. This boy, whose name was Tomás, was once subjected to a humiliating trick from the children of the orphanage - they took him to a cave near a lighthouse, took off his mask and left. Thomas did not leave the cave and died when tide was high.
Laura later finds several bags of lime baby bones hidden in the coal warehouse where Benigna was hidden. These are all that's left of her friends who she grew up with at the orphanage. Benigna poisoned the children who played the trick on Thomas, holding them responsible for his tragic death. These events took place after Laura's adoption, which saved her from the same fate.
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