Movie Review - Carnal Vessels (2025)
by Emily
Posted on
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Country: Australia
Language: English
Type of story: Supernatural Body Swap
Is the protagonist Transgender? No… maybe?
Sexuality: Yes
Nudity: Yes
How I watched it: tubi(Watch here)
When I last watched it: December 29, 2025
So the title of this movie feels like it’s porn. It’s not, though there are a few intimate scenes. Nothing too crazy.
My synopsis (spoiler-free): Two friends, Liv (Arnijka Larcombe-Weate) and Alex (Daniel Simpson) swap bodies for a long erotic weekend.
* * Spoilers ahead * *
“What are we doing Alex?” Olivia, aka Liv asks. These two are friends. Good friends. Friendzone friends. But it sounds like Liv may want more. Does Alex want more? Well, he wasn’t ready to have this conversation. They decided to try for more. And at the end of a fantasy sequence, just before they have sex, then find themselves in each other’s bodies.
The Transformation:
During a very artistic scene of the two of them staring at each other in moody red lights, fog and a sexy saxophone, they abruptly swap. There is no rhyme nor reason. No magical artifacts. No wishes. No bolts of lightning. It just happens.
They run to different mirrors to inspect themselves. Alex-in-Olivia’s-Body (A) gives us the clichéd boob grab.
While they decide what to do, a guy Olivia’s been seeing, James, texts her phone at 3 am. A freaks out that she kept that from him.
They can’t handle what just happened, so A runs off and goes home, leaving Olivia-in-Alex’s-Body (O) chasing after him for most of the movie.
Gender and Sexuality: O is the first one to have sex. She has sex with Alex’s roommate, Erin (Shanay De Marco)
There’s also this weird sexual tension between O and her mother. It mostly appears one-sided as Olivia’s mum (Astrid Wells) sees Alex’s body and wants to go all cougar on it. O doesn’t leave fast enough.
A allows a guy to take him home, but he changes his mind at the last moment. Then he’s on a date with James, and is willing to just let it all happen because James appears to be a nice guy.
At the end of the movie, A and O have sex with each other.
So does their sexuality change? Were they always bi? Are they just going with the flow? Your guess is as good as mine.
What they do while swapped? Well this is a slower movie with both A and O contemplating their situations. They both check out their nude bodies. A threatens to cut Liv’s long hair. A goes out to a pub to drink. O tries to tell Erin the truth. A attempts to break up with James. O goes to visit her mum.
How it ends: So something I haven’t mentioned yet, is that there’s a background plot about the Cadaver Thief, an infamous serial robber who steals corpses from graveyards and morgues. Alex works at a cemetery and has to keep watch on the overnight shift. This background plot isn’t essential to A and O’s sexual escapades until…
(Spoiler)
It’s revealed that James is the Cadaver Thief. And he’s currently on a date with A. Once O learns A is planning on sleeping with James, she goes to stop him and finds the cadaver in James’s freezer.
While James is in the middle of sexual suffocation with A, O comes and saves the day.
A and O call the police. They have sex (before the police get there — and next to a bound and unconscious James). They don’t swap back. And they think they’re OK with that. “When I see you, I don’t see me anymore.”
So are they trans? Your interpretation is as good as mine. They’re both OK with staying swapped. So maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Maybe they’re genderfluid. Or maybe they’re agender. This harkens back to older TF/TG stories where the protagonists aren’t trans, but accept the changes and move on.
Random Thoughts:
On first watch, I thought the artistic red light scene was symbolizing sex. But then they hadn’t even kissed each other, so I’m not sure what that scene was trying to tell us.
When O is trying to explain to Erin that she’s not really Alex, she says “I’m a woman” which Erin interprets as “I’m trans,” which O has to deny.
The first one to have sex is O when she sleeps with Erin. Erin and Alex were already roommates with benefits.
A goes to a pub for a drink. There’s a trivia host (Kyle) talking about the Cadaver Thief. Kyle offers to drive A home. A accepts, but Kyle drives A to Kyle’s home instead, with the expectation of sex. A manages to leave before they have sex. A is apologetic though. “It’s not because of your penis. You’re doing well there.”
When O shows up at her mom’s place, her mom looks her over like a predator. “How old are you?” she asked. “As old as Liv,” O replies.
While A is at Liv’s place, James shows up. Apparently they had a pre-arranged lunch date. James brought couscous. A immediately broke up with him, but felt guilty and invited James back in — and ate the couscous.
Who knew couscous was an aphrodisiac. Or maybe James’s couscous is just that good that it will change a person's sexual preference.
Earlier in the movie before the swap, Liv asked Alex, “What is this?”, referring to their relationship. A asks James the same question.
Eventually A starts to like James “The son of bitch is lovely.” Which leads to A leaving O a voicemail confessing “I’m feeling things.”
O, after hearing the voicemail, gets jealous—either of A or James—and rushes over to James’s place to stop the coupling.
O watches James and A make out and starts to get turned on. She’s only been a guy for two days and she’s already fondling herself outside of a window.
James confesses to A that he has a certain fetish.
A doesn’t understand, but is cool with it anyway. Of course, James never said, “I like to have sex with dead bodies.”
And that is when James attempts to kill A through strangulation then suffocation.
O comes in and saves the day.
I love the idea of having sex next to the bound and tied up villain. There’s something satisfying about it.
Overall impression:
A very artsy movie. A very slow movie. Zero transformation. What I liked about it though is that A and O learned a lot about each other. And in the end, they didn’t change back.
