While we were not in any way, shape, or form stressing over the apparent legal battles between Human Centipede director Tom Six and star Dieter Laser (still the greatest name in Hollywood), it looks like anyone who did give a toss about that kerfuffle can now breathe easy. The new year is really shaping up to be great, isn’t it? EW reports that the pair have settled their battles (in brief, Six had been threatening to sue Laser for breach of contract after the actor reportedly requested “unacceptable script changes” for the third entry in the icky franchise), and Laser is now set to appear in the third film. Oh, thank goodness. There really is joy to be found in this cruel world. Laser will reportedly take a lead role in the film, but he will not be reprising his character from the first entry. Instead, he and Human Centipede 2 “star Laurence R. Harvey are set to play a new, villainous duo ‘with a storyline no one will expect’ that will involve a centipede of “more than 500 people.” Well, it sounds like that storyline involves the two of them stitching people together for their own sick pleasure, so yeah, I think most people will expect just that. Six really has painted himself into a corner with this franchise, hasn’t he?

Whether you actually want to see Human Centipede or its sloppy sequel Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), which hits DVD and Blu-ray this week, you’re definitely aware of the movies. If you didn’t think that the first Human Centipede was gory enough, you now can enjoy the unrated, uncut version of the second film in the privacy (and safety) of your own home. It’s a gross-out film, to be sure, so we don’t recommend eating a pizza or a chocolate sundae while watching it. But that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a few adult beverages along the way. And if you’re so shocked, you’re wondering when you should drink, here’s our suggestions.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr gets ready to celebrate Halloween in style with some horror releases… and he’s not just thinking of Footloose. Unhappy with his life, he follows the bucket list path of Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black, traveling to the bottom of the world where he finds himself in a small Antarctic town that has outlawed dancing. So Kevin takes it upon himself to help the people get their groove on only to discover they’ve been taken over an alien species that duplicate human form. Later, he takes a trip back to the heartland where he finds a feral woman chained in a cellar… pretty standard for some of the towns he’s been to. Finally, not being able to find a theater that is still playing Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), he checks it out On Demand and promptly throws up.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly column about movie news. It will not try to sew your face to someone else’s butt. It will, however, make your hind quarters sore. So give yourself over to it — it will be gentle, at first. Fox’s upcoming Planet of the Apes prequel, previously titled Rise of the Apes, has been retitled to give it that ole’ familiar ring. It will now be called Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which should hold until they can figure out a less concise way to title it. Either way, it’s got James Franco, so I’m seeing it.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr hands out grades to Shrek: The Final Chapter 3D, MacGruber and Human Centipede.

Kevin gives his lukewarm review of the new Shrek movie while Neil shows some 80s action movie love for MacGruber! The Fat Guys also promise to play a listener voice mail, then reneg on that promise (they’re awesome like that), then take a look at the gruesome and controversial Human Centipede.

It takes a very special movie to go ass to mouth… But this film, from director Tom Six, not only goes there, it takes you right to the edge of medically innacurate absurdity and drops you off of a cliff.

Two girls vacationing in Germany are kidnapped by a mad scientist who wants to sew them together ass to mouth to a Japanese guy to create a human centipede connected by a common digestive tract.

Luckily we had a list of the winners sent to us because we didn’t remember all the names. Or where our pants went.