Critical opinion of "Quatermass 2" in the years since its release remains divided. Writing in "Science Fiction in the Cinema", John Baxter found the film “a faithful but ponderous adaptation of Kneale's TV sequel. There are effective sequences, director Guest and cameraman Gerald Gibbs shooting with light lancing up through the shadows in a manner reminiscent of Jacques Tourneur's "Night (or Curse) of the Demon". Otherwise the film is indifferent”. Similarly, John Brosnan, in his book "The Primal Screen", wrote that “"Quatermass 2" isn't as good as the first one, despite a bigger budget. Again the theme is possession (all four "Quatermass" stories are variations on the same theme) with Kneale again cleverly mixing sf with the supernatural. The alien invasion may be sf but it is presented with the trappings of traditional horror, such as the V-shaped "mark of the devil" that all possessed people display”. On the other hand, Bill Warren, in "Keep Watching The Skies!", found "Quatermass 2" to be “one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s. It is not notably better than ["The Quatermass Xperiment"], but the story idea is more involving, the production is livelier and there are more events in the unfolding of the story”. Kim Newman in 1986 praised the film as "extraordinary" and, comparing it to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), Newman notes that while Don Siegel’s film is "a general allegory" about dehumanisation and conformity, "Quatermass 2" is “a specific attack on the Conservative Government of the time, down to the inclusion of several characters obviously based on real political figures”.