A documentary investigating the real history behind one of the world's most enduring paranormal legends.
“The film doesn’t resolve the Montauk Project. It asks why the story survives.”✦
At the easternmost tip of Long Island stands Camp Hero—a decommissioned military installation whose history includes camouflage structures designed to resemble a fishing village, a church, and a windmill. To generations of Long Island teenagers who entered through breaches in its abandoned bunkers, it became the epicenter of the Montauk Project legend—one of the world’s most enduring paranormal legends and a story often associated with the cultural phenomenon surrounding Stranger Things.
Montauk: Off the Record investigates the real history behind the legend through the voices of those connected to Camp Hero and the stories that have surrounded it for decades.
In the early 1960s, military veteran Dean Philippe enlisted in the United States Air Force to avoid the draft. Assigned to the 773rd Radar Squadron, he served as a cook at Montauk Air Force Station from 1961 to 1965. The Cold War-era radar facility would later become known as Camp Hero, and his service there included the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. More than six decades after serving at the installation, Dean, now in his eighties, returns to the base that shaped a pivotal chapter of his life. As he walks its grounds, a forgotten memory surfaces—the name of a friend he hadn’t thought about in more than 40 years.
Framing Dean’s journey are two additional perspectives: archivist Brian E. Minnick, author of Montauk Is Strange, who began chronicling Camp Hero in 1988 and whose early visits and decades of exploration grew into a lifelong archive of the base’s mysteries. Having appeared on several network television programs documenting Montauk, Brian brings firsthand experience and extensive knowledge to the subject. Historic preservation specialist D.J. Sevigny brings expertise in military history and preservation through his current work at Fort Bliss, a United States Army post. He provides critical context by placing decades of folklore alongside the documented history of the installation.
Together, their stories reveal the complex legacy of a forgotten military site—where documented history, personal memories, and enduring folklore converge. Beyond the legends, Montauk: Off the Record uncovers the human stories that continue to shape the mystery of Camp Hero and asks what remains when history and myth become inseparable.
In the early 1980s, a set of books by Preston Nichols, Al Bielek, and Duncan Cameron claimed that Camp Hero had been the site of a secret government program known as the Montauk Project. According to the legend, underground experiments in mind control, time travel, teleportation, and psychological warfare were conducted beneath the radar tower — often framed as a continuation of the infamous Philadelphia Experiment.
To a generation of Long Island teenagers who slipped through holes in bunker walls, the story felt plausible. The base was already forbidden, already crumbling, already full of sealed tunnels and Cold War silence. The Montauk Project gave that emptiness a narrative — complete with "Montauk Boys," abducted children, and whispered accounts of a chair that could open doorways in time.
The Duffer Brothers drew directly from this atmosphere when developing Stranger Things. Their original pilot was even titled Montauk, and the show's central ingredients — a secret government lab, child test subjects, interdimensional experiments, and a small coastal town — all echo the Montauk mythology. The fiction borrowed the mood; this film returns to the real place and people underneath it.
What often gets lost is that Camp Hero was also a functioning military installation. The 773rd Radar Squadron operated the AN/FPS-35 radar here. The base played a real role during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy assassination. Its buildings were disguised as a fishing village, a church, and a windmill to hide from Soviet reconnaissance. The Montauk Project did not erase that history — it overshadowed it. This film does not resolve the myth. It asks why the story survives.
The Duffer Brothers called their first draft Montauk. This is where that draft came from.
773rd Radar Squadron · 1961 — 1965
Stationed at Camp Hero with the 773rd Radar Squadron from 1961 to 1965, Dean arrived at nineteen years old as a cook and left four years later having lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy assassination from inside the base's perimeter. He later married a woman from Montauk he met during his service. Dean returns to the grounds for the first time in years for this film.
Author · Montauk Is Strange
Brian first found his way into Camp Hero as a ten-year-old in 1988, discovering a collapsed World War II bunker on a bike ride with friends. That accidental discovery grew into a lifetime of research, culminating in his book Montauk Is Strange — an archive of the base's military history alongside the decades of legend that have grown up around it.
Historian · Coastal Fire-Control Stations
D.J.'s connection to Montauk began at the lighthouse's bicentennial celebration in 1996, when his family became close with the site's longtime caretaker, Marge Winsky. That relationship led him to Camp Hero itself, and eventually to a graduate thesis on the base's coastal fire-control stations. D.J. brings the film's grounding in documented military history.
Anthony Griffo is a filmmaker, producer, and entrepreneur from Long Island, New York. He is the founder of Griffo Productions Inc. and Project Podcast Co. and is currently pursuing his Master's degree in Producing for Film and Television at Quinnipiac University. Anthony first visited Montauk when he was 16 years old, where he became fascinated by Camp Hero and the stories surrounding it. He noticed that while the Montauk Project conspiracy has become widely known, the real history of Camp Hero and the people connected to it are rarely part of the conversation. That inspired him to create Montauk: Off the Record—a documentary that explores both the documented history and the enduring legends of Camp Hero. The film is not about proving or disproving the Montauk Project; it's about asking why the story has endured for decades and giving audiences the opportunity to explore both sides for themselves.
An Emmy® Award winner, 2-time Emmy® Award nominee, 3-time Telly Award winner, and United States Army Reserve veteran, Shefik is a media innovator whose expansive work spans broadcast television, documentaries, digital media, and technology. Passionate about preserving history through compelling visual storytelling, Shefik serves as Producer, Director of Photography, Story Editor, and Additional Editor of Montauk: Off the Record. He was drawn to the project by the opportunity to help tell the truthful, untold stories of the former United States Army installation Camp Hero and Montauk Air Force Station through firsthand accounts, honor the legacy of the service members who were stationed there in Montauk, New York, and create a documentary that preserves this historic and authentic chapter for future generations. Through Montauk: Off the Record, Shefik combines his production expertise, visual storytelling experience, and connection to military history to illuminate a significant chapter of Montauk's past, while preserving the voices of those who experienced it firsthand.
Assistant Director and Production Assistant for Montauk: Off The Record. Going into the project I was unfamiliar with the history of Montauk and Camp hero but the opportunity to work with a dedicated and passionate crew lead me to discovery the fascinating history of this place which we aim to shape with everyone through this film.
Independent documentary work lives and dies on the people who believe in it early. Every contribution funds another day in the field with Dean, another archive pulled from storage, another mile of tape.