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From the cabin next door came Olive’s piteous moans and a deep voice.

But Homes retains a quality of resigned sympathy with these anxious, immensely self-important characters — a tincture of compassion that makes them feel all the more piteous.

As I type this — alone in an upstairs room — a piteous sound is issuing from the floor below.

Humanlike figures are squashed, tortured and consumed by roaming brutes; piteous squawks and rattles pepper a soundtrack soothed by Dan Wool’s moving musical score.

When Sarah, introducing herself to her class, mentions a brother who died, her reflex not to seem piteous makes her explanation weirdly funny: “He was just like a baby, so it wasn’t sad or anything.”