group and 8 directional movement

I'm attempting to make a top down shooter. I have a start button and when clicked the a group is activated and enemies start to spawn but the 8 directional movement is deactivated for the player. it works fine before the start button and is pressed.

I've tried activating it once the group is activated (the group that is activated once the start button is clicked, thus spawning enemies and will, hopefully,hold the rest of the program code) but that doesn't seem to work...

Any suggestions?

Thanks.