Tom Felton will probably always be Draco Malfoy first in the public imagination, which is both a blessing and a weird career trap. Harry Potter made him instantly recognizable, but it also means every new role has to fight through two decades of audience memory before viewers judge it on its own terms. That is why his recent genre work, which is now headed to HBO Max, carries substance.
The movie had a rough theatrical life. It opened on March 27, carried an R rating, leaned hard into blood, gore, dark comedy, cult violence, and survival-action chaos, then ended up grossing only about $19 million against a reported $20 million budget. That is a bad theatrical equation, but horror has always had a different afterlife than most genres. A movie can miss in theaters, land digitally, and find the right late-night audience. The Empty Man, Malignant, and Jennifer’s Body are good examples of this behavior.
Felton’s latest film is They Will Kill You, and it hits HBO Max on June 12, 2026. Zazie Beetz leads as Asia Reaves, an ex-con who takes a housekeeping job at the Virgil, only to discover the building is basically a death-trap tied to a demonic cult. Felton stars alongside Myha’la, Paterson Joseph, Heather Graham, and Patricia Arquette, with Kirill Sokolov helming the script he co-wrote with Alex Litvak. The critical response has already split in the exact way cult horror often does on RT — the movie has a 64% score from critics, 77% from audiences. The movie is as if Ready or Not, John Wick, and Looney Tunes had a baby with pure chaos. HBO Max is probably the better arena for that kind of movie anyway.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Tom Felton Has a Total of 56 Acting Credits, Including an Upcoming Film
Felton’s post-Harry Potter career has been less blockbuster-heavy, which is why his filmography is easy to underestimate. IMDb lists him with 56 acting credits, but most viewers probably remember only the cleanest post-Draco pivot as Rise of the Planet of the Apes, where he played another smug, cruel young antagonist right as the Potter era ended.
Since then, he has moved through indies, genre films, TV, music video, and smaller dramatic roles. His upcoming film As Deep as the Grave, however, gives him a more interesting historical lane, and casts him as archaeologist Earl H. Morris in a story about Ann Axtell Morris and Canyon de Chelly, with the project also drawing attention and controversy for its AI-generated Val Kilmer performance. As Deep as the Grave is currently in its post-production phase, with no clear release date.
They Will Kill You will be available to stream on HBO Max starting Friday, June 12, 2026. The film will then make its debut on the HBO cable network on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
