Overlook Film Festival 2025 – Just how weird is writer/director C.J. Arellano‘s short film Dry January? Well, it features a crab man/monster, played by Max B. Ehrlich, who appears nightly and vomits strips of paper on one of the main characters that have various fortune cookie-like sayings. Yet, despite the short’s fun absurdity, there’s something deeper about the struggles of sobriety and constant temptation.

The film opens with its lead, Maya (Akanksha Cruczynski), retching and vomiting on January 1. Yes, indeed, someone partied a little too hard on New Year’s Eve. Because of that, she commits to dry January, and while sober, she takes up sculpting. More specifically, she sculps crabs over and over again. For whatever reason, this conjures the crab man, who largely torments Maya’s brother, Toby (Zak Ma). Toby drinks… a lot. He downs shots and bottles of booze. He frequently tempts Maya to quit her sobriety. He’s not exactly the most positive influence. Maybe this is why the crab man spews those notes on his chest, which largely praise Maya, causing an even greater riff in the sibling relationship.

Though the short revels in its wild absurdity, to the point the crab man does a dance as the credits roll, it does drill down to something deeper. At one point, Maya says that she and her brother are like crabs in a boiling pot of water. When she tries to climb out and better her life, her brother claws and pulls her back down. This short is a creative feature, but it’s also a commentary on sobriety and the challenges of maintaining it.

Dry January is one strange short with a crab creature at its center. Yet, despite some of the silliness, the film strikes a more serious tone when it explores the difficulty of sobriety, temptation, and a toxic sibling relationship. During its best moments, this creature feature is a solid character-driven story.