THE DIRECTIVE (2019)

I’m not even gonna try and hide it, The Directive may well be the worst film I’ve ever seen. I’m talking The Mummy Reborn or The Shelter level bad. And what’s worse it clocks in at just under two hours. Stupid, dull and overlong, the real apocalypse would have to be more fun than this.

Set after a virus has wiped out most of humanity we spend the first twenty minutes of The Directive watching Dylan (Kyle Abraham) wander around the ghost town he calls home, talk to himself, sew a hole in his trousers, etc. Then a couple of dudes in a spotless white SUV and tactical gear show up. Some other dude ambushes them. He grabs Dylan’s stash of supplies and tosses the remains of a robot out of the Tahoe to make room.

The robot can still talk and around The Directive’s one hour mark convinces Dylan to head to Safe Zone 57. We then get endless footage of him walking through the Utah woodlands with the robot in his backpack. He eventually reaches Safe Zone 57 and The Directive hits us with its big twist. One we all saw coming a mile away.

Writer/director Alexander Raye Pimentel (Down River) apparently filmed The Directive on a budget of $1,600, which explains the lack of cast or production values. What it doesn’t explain is why the film drags on for two hours or how in a post-holocaust ghost town Dylan has electricity and internet access. Or how, in a world where people are killing each other for supplies he looks not just well fed, but chunky.

But the kicker is still The Directive is two hours mostly of one guy saying stupid things to himself, and then to a robot. Mostly to himself. The rest is footage of him doing stupid shit or walking around. The director actually thought people would stick through this for a “shocking” conclusion that comes straight out of Conspiracy Theory 101. And not even one of the more intelligent theories for that matter.

I wasn’t going to spoil it, but the official synopsis for the trailer on YouTube gives it away. If the makers don’t care why should I? If you don’t want to know, skip over to the last paragraph.

The plague was released intentionally to kill off large chunks of the population. Why not just shoot him instead of leaving a robot to guide him to where he’ll catch it and then die alone?

The Directive is available from Green Apple Entertainment on Amazon, Hulu and probably other platforms.