complete with dumbed down exposition and an obsession with every minute detail having to have "lore."

I didn't think the Backrooms Movie was that exposition heavy. It did a good job at Showing rather than Telling.

While there was lore shit throughout, i had only seen the original short film, and knew nothing of the lore before going into the movie. So while there was stuff I could point to and be like "oh that's for the lore heads" most of it didn't phase me, because it also ended up being a satisfying set up for a later Chekhov's Gun payoff later in the film.

For example, the caveman standee. When it first showed up, I guessed it was probably some lore thing that I didn't get. But that didn't matter, because its purpose and origin was shown to me at the end of the film, by being utilized in the final chase sequence.

All the fact that the lore references still worked for me, despite me not knowing the lore, is a compliment to the film, tbh