On the
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus states, "A smart and subversive twist on slasher horror,
Fear Street Part II: 1978 shows that summer camp has never been scarier thanks to stellar performances from Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, and Ryan Simpkins." According to
Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 16 critics, the film received "generally favorable" reviews. Natalia Winkelman, in her review of the
Fear Street trilogy for
The New York Times, described
1978 as being the strongest film in the trilogy, and wrote: "the change in scenery ensures that "Part Two" never feels like a clone of "Part One"." Writing for
Empire, Ian Freer gave the film a score of 3 stars out of 5, writing: "It might not work as well as
Part One: 1994, but it cements the idea that telling a narrative in feature-length installments ... can be a fruitful mode for ambitious long-form storytelling", but stated: "As the plot splits the teens up, there is little of the engaging interplay between the friends of the first part and, with only one type of maniac on the loose, the kills themselves feel same-y, less imaginative." Lovia Gyarkye of
The Hollywood Reporter described the film as being "its own exhilarating adventure that showcases a dynamic cast of characters and revels in lots and lots of bloody murder." She concluded: "For me, the best parts of
Fear Street Part 2 are the ones in which the teen drama takes center stage — from the illicit romantic pairings to the crazy feuds and pranks. Genre purists will be relieved that none of that comes at the expense of grisly murder scenes; Janiak spares no one, and there's no shortage of inventive deaths."
Kevin Maher of
The Times gave the film a score of 3 stars out of 5, writing: "As with the first outing, the director Leigh Janiak proves herself an impeccable stylist, delivering muted 1970s tones, judiciously judged scares and ceaseless tap-a-long tunes". Nick Allen of
RogerEbert.com gave the film a score of 2 out of 4 stars. He wrote that the "hacking is top-notch", and praised the score by
Marco Beltrami and Brandon Roberts, but concluded that the film is "a frustrating bummer—a summer camp slasher that's afraid of campiness, and one that'd be a better fit for group therapy sessions than sleepovers." Barry Hertz of
The Globe and Mail wrote: "While Part One stands as a fine-enough ode to the slasher renaissance of the mid-1990s ... Part Two proves that the entire
Fear Street enterprise could have easily kept its time-hopping ambitions to a two-hour kill fest", adding: "the big and bloody problem with Part Two is that, by making a horror flick set at a 1970s summer camp with a contemporary perspective and budget, director Leigh Janiak has set herself up for failure." The film ranks on Rotten Tomatoes' Best Horror Movies of 2021. ==Sequel==