Fireproof Games has hit a home run with their debut game for the iPad (version 2 and up). The reviews I have seen are generally praising it as original, and I suppose it must seem so in a market crowded with ports of popular board and arcade games, and different styles of puzzle games; but The Room reminds me of a great point and click puzzle game of yesteryear, Myst. Being an iPad game, it also takes advantage of controls like tilting, tapping, and gestures.
So, while it may not be altogether original to people over 40, The Room is nonetheless a remarkable game to experience. You play an unnamed protagonist investigating the disappearance of a scientist who has become obsessed with the idea of discovering a new element; one that may open a doorway to another world. He has hidden his findings in a series of puzzle-boxes, which you must decipher in order to read more of his findings. Each new puzzle box represents a level of the game; and each level is creepier and more sinister than the last, making very effective use of the game’s superior sound design and graphics. I felt like I had been immersed in an H.P. Lovecraft story as I played.
My only complaint about The Room is that I wish there had been more of it. Much like with Myst, the game is completely linear so there is not much replay potential once you know how to solve the puzzles. At $5.00, it costs a bit more than the average iOS game, but I certainly don’t begrudge the cost. At the game’s conclusion, the developers promise that there is more to come; hopefully that means more levels in a software update.
Ashley Greene takes the lead in a film that is somehow worse than Twilight. The Apparition is the humourless, horrorless tale of Kelly and Ben (Sebastian Stan), who are renting an “investment home” from her parents. When increasingly spooky stuff starts to happen in the house, Ben has to come clean: he and his college friend Patrick (Tom Felton) once tried to replicate a paranormal experiment where they focused and amplified their concentration on summoning a spirit. They succeeded – and Ben’s previous girlfriend paid the price. Patrick arrives with ghostbusting gear to try to reverse the process, to no avail. 
I finally got around to watching this charming ghost story by writer/director Ti West, whose Cabin Fever 2 was a surprisingly good reframing of Eli Roth’s original. The Innkeepers is the story of Claire and Luke (Sara Paxton and Pat Healy), two young people in charge of an old small town inn on its last weekend of operation. The inn is vacant apart from a visiting actress (Kelly McGillis), a newly separated mother with her son, and a 19th century ghost that Luke swears to have seen once and is now trying to capture on audio. Claire offers to help, carrying his tape recorder and microphone through the deserted rooms while he sleeps during her part of the overnight shift.
