Actor Crispin Glover has built a modest cult following for his offbeat roles in such films as "River's Edge," "Back to the Future," "The Doors" and the "Charlie's Angels" movies. His sharp features, beady eyes and mannered drawl make him sometimes funny, sometimes creepy, but always memorable.

Now, after more than two decades in movies, Glover has directed a film of his own that premieres this week in the midnight-movie section of the Sundance Film Festival. Perhaps aptly named "What Is It?", the film is described in the festival guide as "a hallucinogenic trip deep into the mind of its bizarre creator."

Its startling imagery includes a naked man with cerebral palsy lying on a giant seashell, a naked woman wearing a monkey mask, a Shirley Temple look-alike in a Nazi uniform and a cast of amateur actors with Down syndrome. Oh, and the screams of actress Fairuza Balk, who is not seen on-screen.

Glover describes his movie -- made for $125,000 of his own money -- as a reaction against corporate-controlled media that trumpet mainstream cultural values while stifling alternative forms of expression.

"It's really a film to help start these kinds of discussions," the 40-year-old actor said in a recent phone interview. "Why are these things taboo, and what does that mean for the culture itself?"

Glover's struggle to complete "What Is It?" consumed almost a decade. He began shooting it as a short film in 1995 in Los Angeles, where he lives, and wrapped principal photography three years later. In between, Glover shot some scenes in a Salt Lake City warehouse studio owned by artist and filmmaker David Brothers.

It took Glover another six years to raise enough money to edit the film's sound mix and add such optical effects as dissolves and montages. Glover says he funded his film in part with his paychecks from the "Charlie's Angels" movies, which, despite their silliness, he enjoyed making because of the martial-arts training involved.

Glover envisions "What Is It?" as the first film in a thematically linked trilogy. He has already wrapped the second film, "It is Fine. Everything is Fine!", which was shot entirely at Brothers' studio in Salt Lake City and which Glover calls "probably the best film I'll ever work on in my entire career."

The second film was written by Utah writer-actor Steven C. Stewart, who appears in both movies and who died of complications from cerebral palsy in 2001. Glover met Stewart and Brothers through Salt Lake City filmmaker Trent Harris, who directed the actor in the Utah cult favorite "Rubin and Ed."

Harris -- who has seen some early footage from "What Is It?" -- admires Glover's individuality.

"He appreciates things that other people don't. And he's not afraid of the bizarre," Harris says. "It [the film] is very surreal. It'll rattle a few cages, I'm sure."

Unlike most first-time directors, Glover is not going to Sundance to sell his film. He doesn't believe potential investors will find it commercial enough.

"You can't get funding for this sort of thing," he says. "There is a financial rule in this country that basically stops countercultural expression from happening."

Instead, Glover sees the festival as a launching pad for a tour of art-house theaters later this year. Glover plans to visit cities and college towns with his movie, recoup his $125,000 budget, and then repeat the process with the trilogy's second and third films. In this small way, he hopes to offer an alternative to the safe, predictable entertainment being churned out by Hollywood.

"A culture will die a death of stupidity if it doesn't have different points of view," he says. "There's a gigantic niche that's not being filled. And I'm happy to fill it."

griggs@sltrib.com

'Bizarre creator'

"What Is It?" screens Thursday at midnight at the Egyptian Theatre, 328 Main Street in Park City. It also screens Saturday, 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, 1:30 p.m., both at the Holiday Village theaters in Park City.