Most critics like it, and the reviews agree on why: Fresnadillo keeps the grim tone and the frantic documentary-style camerawork of the original while working on a larger scale, and the deserted London locations do much of the frightening. The praise clusters on the set-pieces, the outbreak and chase sequences in particular, which several reviews call relentless and terrifying, and on the film’s willingness to read as an allegory of occupation, with the military presence making the crisis worse rather than better.
The spread is fairly wide for a film this well liked. A minority finds the plotting careless: Time Out thinks the script relies on too many fudges and neglects the moral complexity of its key characters, and The Guardian, the one outright dissent, calls a credibility-breaking glitch around thirty minutes in fatal and finds the whole thing frequently boring after a strong opening. Even admirers concede it is less fresh and less heartfelt than its predecessor.