Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, the story that inspired the Movie Badlands: Directed by Terrence Malick. Badlands was loosely based on a series of murders by two young Americans. Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate killed Caril's family and a number of other people who had the misfortune to get in their way. While the movie is in no way a documentary, many of the details are taken directly from the true story.