Two of the admittedly hyper-specific things I love in my onscreen entertainment are subtle, surreal moments that highlight a character’s fears and insecurities; and dance scenes that reveal a character’s identity and inner life. Lucky for me, 2026 has already offered several examples of each across TV and movies. Whether it’s a scene set in a creepy nondescript office space or the camera following a character’s seductive out-of-this-world dance, here are my most delightful and frightful visual moments of the year so far.
An OnlyFans Model Finds Her Footing
In Apple TV’s heartwarming series “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” Margo (played by Elle Fanning) is a college dropout and new mom who builds an online profile on OnlyFans for some much needed income. Beyond money, her new online life offers her a fresh vehicle for her untapped creativity and a means toward more sexual autonomy. Online, Margo is reinvented as the Hungry Ghost, a green-painted, orange-wigged alien rocking a Judy Jetson style of sexy-kitschy futuristic fashion.
In this memorable scene, the Hungry Ghost seems to discover music for the first time, her limbs seemingly bewitched by the song, her body appearing to move without her control. But when the beat comes in her body stiffens and jerks into place. Her stumbling, unsteady steps become stomps and a high-flying kick. The Hungry Ghost has found her rhythm and is suddenly in charge. This 30-second dance serves as an apt metaphor for Margo’s own journey through the minefield of online content creation: She stumbles at first but then finds her footing with charisma and style.
An Internet Image Comes to Life
It all started with a 4chan image of a yellow-walled, anonymous office space. The internet took this image and ran with it, imagining it as an extra-dimensional setting where various horrors may be revealed. Kane Parsons, the young director of the recent A24 thriller “Backrooms,” created a web series inspired by the photo and then adapted his series into his debut full-length film, which has become a breakout.
In the movie, a furniture store owner named Clark (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovers an entrance to an endless labyrinth of likewise creepy rooms in his store’s basement. Parsons re-creates the eeriness of the yellow rooms in that original photo: It’s the vague familiarity of the mysterious, abandoned spaces in the film that makes them so unnerving. The fluorescent lights are bleak and lifeless, illuminating the pale yellow walls (a touch of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, perhaps?) along with the shadowy long corridors. And the dissonance of the rooms’ dressings — chairs and telephone poles, stop signs, store signs, a Christmas tree playing “Feliz Navidad” — give everything a feeling of displacement. Like a modern art exhibit about liminal spaces and the omnipresent force of entropy, the visuals of the backrooms in the film are more arresting and memorable than the thin plot attached to them.
A Gruff Teen Lets His Guard Down
For most of the HBO series “Half Man,” as a teenager and adult alike, Ruben Pallister is a frightening force of masculine energy, liable to erupt in a sudden burst of violence at any point. In a fantastic performance that so perfectly mirrors Richard Gadd’s as adult Ruben, Stuart Campbell arms young Ruben with a dead-eyed stare and gruff adolescent armor that seldom reveals the vulnerability underneath. Though there are many unforgettable Ruben scenes, most of which are brutal and traumatic, this short scene, of young Ruben dancing alone in his room, is one where we see a softer side.
His dance, to “Clever Trevor,” by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, is fun and jaunty, full of shoulder shimmies and slide steps, and even a little sensual, especially as we watch through the eyes of his closeted adopted brother, Niall, who looks on from the doorway, unbeknown to Ruben. It’s why Ruben suddenly stops mid-dance and storms at Niall as soon as he notices his audience; for once someone has seen him with his guard down.
A Party Slowly Turns Sinister
In this uniquely suspenseful and comedic new Apple TV series, a mayor of a small island community trying to transform the town into the next Martha’s Vineyard faces generations-old supernatural terrors. The subtle shifts from fun to terror in “Widow’s Bay,” in particular during this one party scene, is a prime example of the kind of deft tonal changes the show pulls off in both its dialogue and its direction.
In the fourth episode, Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), the town outcast desperate to find her social niche, throws a party following the instructions of a suspicious 1950s homemaker-style self-help book. Though the party initially seems like a bust, with the help of the book’s increasingly adamant demands, Patricia soon finds herself dancing at the center of a room of lively party guests. It’s initially unclear from where the night’s terrors will appear — until, of course, the camera follows Patricia, carelessly dancing in the crowd, and ever so briefly reveals the people behind her suddenly standing stiffly, eyes wide and mouths agape in unsettling Munch-esque expressions. The moment passes so quickly that the viewer might miss it, or even misinterpret it. But this is how beautifully the episode creeps to its haunting climax, by teasing the slightest glance of horror and pulling back.
A New Take on a Grotesque Classic
Netflix’s recent adaptation of “Lord of the Flies” stands out for its strong cast of young actors, some stunning cinematography and, yes, a new take of the pig head that launched a million high school English papers. This adaptation takes a more surreal visual approach to the material, boldly bringing the dead pig to life, so to speak. The slow close-ups of the pig’s face, a forest background of leaves awash in psychedelic, oversaturated colors, the pig’s hoarse, raspy whisper: All these elements come together to infect the scene with a nightmarish pallor.
Notably, “Lord of the Flies” was not the only place to see a very vocal, very decapitated pig head this year, with the image also appearing in the movie “They Will Kill You” and the Amazon comedy-drama series “Bait.”
The post 5 of My Favorite Onscreen Moments of 2026, So Far appeared first on New York Times.
