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Dole: I'm gonna try to do this quickly and without long drawn out exposition,
1) Given that the first game was based around the cult being complete dicks and causing the events that LEAD the town into darkness, it made sense to go with them as the main 'bad guy focal point'(re: Dhalia burns Alessa purposely in an attempt to take control of Alessa's 'powers', but Alessa splits her soul into two...as one half ends up on the side of the road as a baby[re: Cheryl] that Harry finds while the other[Alessa] ends up in a comatose state).
Now the idea that the church was based around 'witch hunters'(instead of the cult of sammael) was a REALLY different take on it, but either way....it did it's job of being the badguy and did it well given the context of the film.
2) While the husband scenes were complete useless filler, it did give Gans and co a window to setup the James Sunderland style plot for a sequel(the standard 'husband is in deep depression knowing he couldn't save his wife/daughter, gets a letter and heads to SH himself' plot can now easily be implimented with the correct amount of subtext and dialog)
3)PH was a manifestation of James' guilt/etc yes, however...the character of "PH" is based soley off of a painting/photo ANY person living in SH could have seen(Historical Society/Prison Areas). Hence anyone who has seen the image could bury the idea of PH in their subconcious, and when the right mental/emotional/physical trauma has been inflicted...the subconscious could then release that person's version of PH.
However, since the idea of PH varies from person to person(as each subconscious take on any specific thing can have numerous variants) and while we already understand why and what James' PH represents, we have to take into account what he represented for Alessa and why her subconscious summoned him to understand WHY he looks the way he does, and WHY he does what he does to his intended victims.
When one takes into account the incident with the janitor(Colin), that explains PH's stature and overall muscular/dominating look. A 10-11 year olds subconscious depiction of a "bad man", especially given this scenario would be a hugely hulking and menacing form. Now, what does PH do to it's victims? He strips them of their clothes(akin to Colin taking away Alessa's innocence), then takes away their flesh/skin(just as Alessa's was burned away by the cult).
Unlike wherein James needed him to bring about his subconscious 'awakening' of sorts about what he did to Mary, in the realm of this film PH is nothing more than a tool for a little girl who was savagely treated to enact her retribution in a world where her intended victims can't escape.
Now while each monster in the SH film come from a different game, it's easy to understand WHY they're here. The Nurses obviously represent what Alessa's confusion and fear saw from within her burn tent(the plastic could easily warp someones facial features), the Cockroaches AND Colin/The Janitor both represent the filth/dirtiness she felt from the 'incident' with him in the school bathroom(this also explains why Colin 'spreads' the filth along the walls that give birth to the cockroaches), Acid Monsters/Patient Demons are nothing more than someone trapped in their own skin(or lack thereof) while the putrid acid emissions could easily represent the infections on Alessa's body due to the fire. The Grey Children easily represent the burning itself, but just as Alessa was continually hounded/swarmed by the entire class at school for being a 'witch'...these demons swarm their victim en masse and devour them with a mob mentality.
The real question is whether or not they'll change the look of PH for the sequel, if he actually shows up at all...or if we're going to be introduced to some 'other' monsters(Valtiel, The giant moth, Sammael for example)
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