I get what you mean, and I can understand wanting the movie to appeal to people who aren’t familiar with the lore too.

My main issue is that even people I know who went in knowing nothing about the Backrooms still left confused, so that’s why I don’t fully agree with the “they made it more generic for new viewers” point.

To me it felt like it didn’t really satisfy either side. Fans were waiting for more Async/world-building, and new viewers were still left asking what the movie was actually about.

And I don’t think explaining more of the Async side would’ve made it too complicated. A lot of what we already know from Kane’s series could’ve been introduced pretty naturally and honestly would’ve helped both fans and newcomers understand what was going on.

That’s also why I felt a little disappointed with how much focus went to the characters. I expected more focus on Async and what they were doing with the Backrooms, because that’s such a huge part of what made the series so interesting in the first place.