Doesn't somebody hate Spider?

I’m waiting patiently for David Cronenberg’s Spider to come to Dallas. Last year I went and read the book it’s based on and was not really that impressed. The fact that the author wrote the screenplay concerns me as well. (I just saw “The Fountainhead” where Ayn Rand adapted her own novel and it doesn’t make a very good movie, it’s more like propaganda. Gorgeous art direction though.) However, review after review keeps praising “Spider”. I keep trying to lower my expectations but then I read stuff like this from Stephen Holden in the NY Times:

‘Spider’ is as harrowing a portrait of one man’s tormented isolation as the commercial cinema has produced. This has got to be hype. Every year I get really excited about one movie and it blows. I don’t want that to happen this year but I can’t seem to stop it. Listening: Backbone of the Night-Jimi Tenor