I agree it's disappointing not really understanding the cause of the deaths. But John Hobbes is just a friend of Rupert Galley who was invited over into the Galley house. Of course Rupert died on scene 01 so John forgot his connection.
The "narrator" is an intentionally unnamed agent who documented sound files that some techies managed to create, but intentionally left himself unnamed so no one will remember him and die, because apparently how the curse works is that remembering a person killed by the curse causes you to die.