Well, if you think about the whole staircase scene, Angela ascends the stairs, she's leaving her personal hell and finally escaping, but James has to return through the door from whence he came, returning to his hell. He can't escape like she can.

I think that part of James' hell means that he can partially see what the others do, he at least sees what is his version of another persons, like in the doorman-angela scene, to Angela the doorman appears to be her father, but to James it's just another monster like the demon's of his subconcious.

To each, their own hell.

James sees them as horrific monsters, because he abhors ugliness, just in the reason he killed Mary because he was disgusted by how ugly she had become, so all that faced him was ugliness.

Eddie was bitter, hateful and wanted to kill people, so people is what he saw.

And Angela, well she was all alone, she saw nothing save James and "her father".

As each follow up their hell, and as James destroyed more than was ugly and Eddie killed more "people", they became more and more pulled in by Silent Hill.

And it's fairly obvious that Angela THINKS she's a bad person, as a lot of rape and child abuse victims think that they're in the wrong when they're not.

But, I think, the most interesting theory is that Silent Hill provides choices, that there are two deitys fighting for control, Samael for evil and Metatron for good. That the switch between light and dark Silent Hill is when one of these deity's gain control.

Sinners are called to Silent Hill and given a choice, between life and death, being saved or total damnation, this is shown by the different endings. Maria/Rebirth being where James falls for Samael and is damned, where he falls for the false Mary and is force to relive his crime and Rebirth where he decides to follow Samael and is again damned. In Water/Leave is where James is forgiven and allowed to move on by Metatron, through death In Water and through a new life with Laura in Leave.

Personally, I'm a little dubious about that one, since Metatron was only hinted at in SH1, and there is little evidence of Samael in SH2, bar the mark of Samael on the floor in the hotel.

Also, random note for SH4 players, (SPOILER)You'll remember the reference to Walter Sullivan in the newspaper article in the trash, and from playing SH4 you'll know about his links to Dahlia and the Wish House, but look in his "lair" in SH4, and you'll see the Great Knife in the background. The Great Knife being Pyramid Head's weapon, perhaps Walter was involved in SH2 in some way, as the Holy Assumption he performed and the 21 sacraments is too related to the summoning of Samael.

Phew, too much.