This story belongs to the or "Cursed File" subgenre of internet horror, similar to "Smile Dog" or "Ben Drowned." It plays on the inherent anxiety of downloading unverified files from the internet and the fear that digital corruption can manifest as physical danger.

: A user browsing an obscure file-sharing site, an old IRC channel, or a deep-web forum comes across a file titled HOPPS.rar . The file is often described as being unusually small or having a date modified from the future or decades in the past.

: In many versions, "Hopps" refers to a distorted, rabbit-like figure (a play on the word "hop") that appears in the video. The figure is said to watch the viewer, with the legend claiming that once the file is opened, the entity "jumps" from the digital world into the physical space of the downloader.